Sunday, October 12, 2008

Vote your Conscience--It's NOT a waste!

A Wasted Vote

by Chuck Baldwin
October 10, 2008

When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so.

In the first place, a wasted vote is a vote for someone you know does not represent your own beliefs and principles. A wasted vote is a vote for someone you know will not lead the country in the way it should go. A wasted vote is a vote for the "lesser of two evils." Or, in the case of John McCain and Barack Obama, what we have is a choice between the "evil of two lessers."

Albert Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. For years now, Republicans and Democrats have been leading the country in the same basic direction: toward bigger and bigger government; more and more socialism, globalism, corporatism, and foreign interventionism; and the dismantling of constitutional liberties. Yet, voters continue to think that they are voting for "change" when they vote for a Republican or Democrat. This is truly insane!

Take a look at the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout: both John McCain and Barack Obama endorsed and lobbied for it. Both McCain and Obama will continue to bail out these international banksters on the backs of the American taxpayers. Both McCain and Obama support giving illegal aliens amnesty and a path to citizenship. In the debate this past Tuesday night, both McCain and Obama expressed support for sending U.S. forces around the world for "peacekeeping" purposes. They also expressed support for sending combat forces against foreign countries even if those countries do not pose a threat to the United States. Neither Obama nor McCain will do anything to stem the tide of a burgeoning police state or a mushrooming New World Order. Both Obama and McCain support NAFTA and similar "free trade" deals. Neither candidate will do anything to rid America of the Federal Reserve, or work to eliminate the personal income tax, or disband the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Both Obama and McCain support the United Nations. So, pray tell, how is a vote for either McCain or Obama not a wasted vote?

But, back to the "he cannot win" argument: to vote for John McCain is to vote for a man who cannot win. Yes, I am saying it here and now: John McCain cannot win this election. The handwriting is on the wall. The Fat Lady is singing. It is all over. Finished. John McCain cannot win.

With only three weeks before the election, Barack Obama is pulling away. McCain has already pulled his campaign out of Michigan. In other key battleground states, McCain is slipping fast. He was ahead in Missouri; now it is a toss-up or leaning to Obama. A couple of weeks ago, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida were all leaning towards McCain, or at least toss-up states. Now, they are all leaning to Obama. Even the longtime GOP bellwether state of Indiana is moving toward Obama. In addition, new voter registrations are at an all-time high, and few of them are registering as Republicans. In fact, the Republican Party now claims only around 25% of the electorate, and Independents are increasingly leaning toward Obama.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is headed for an electoral landslide victory over John McCain. John McCain can no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton.

I ask, therefore, Are not conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain guilty of the same thing that they accuse people who vote for third party candidates of doing? Are they not voting for someone who cannot win? Indeed, they are. In fact, conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain are not only voting for a man who cannot win, they are voting for a man who does not share their own beliefs and principles. If this is not insanity, nothing is!

So, why not (for once in your life, perhaps) cast a vote purely for principle! Vote for someone who is truly pro-life. Someone who would quickly secure our nation's borders, and end the invasion of our country by illegal aliens. Someone who would, on his first day in office, release Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean and fire U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Someone who would immediately, upon assuming office, begin leading the charge to dismantle the Federal Reserve, overturn the 16th Amendment, expunge the IRS, and return America to sound money principles. Someone who would get the US out of the UN. Someone who would stop spending billions and trillions of dollars for foreign aid. Someone who would prosecute the Wall Street bankers who defrauded the American people out of billions of dollars. Someone who would work to repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and stop the NAFTA superhighway. Someone who would say a resounding "No" to the New World Order. Someone who would stop using our brave men and women in uniform as global cops for the United Nations. Someone who would stop America's global adventurism and interventionism. Someone who would steadfastly support and defend the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

"Who is this person?" you ask. Go here to find out:

BALDWIN '08

As John Quincy Adams said, "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Using that argument, why don't you find somebody better than Baldwin and write them in? Why don't you write in somebody better that can't win? Why don't we all just write in who we think is the best?

BTW, we are choosing McCain over Obama out of principle.

Zogby has McCain up by one point on a poll yesterday. You know that McCain can win. Saying he can't is denying the facts and denying history.

If you are interested, I plan to post a through defense and argument for supporting McCain in this election at:

FelixThePianist.blogspot.com

Katie said...

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your comment and I have thought about that a lot myself... My solution is that voting for someone who DOES share many of my values who is ON the ballot, at least has more of a chance than a write in. But yes, if nobody on the ballot shared my core beliefs, I would write someone in, and campaign for him. McCain is just the lesser of two evils and you have to agree with me that many many conservatives were not happy with McCain but voted for him anyway because they didn't want Obama. My philosophy is, vote for someone you really want serving your country (preferably who's on the ballot) and if EVERYONE who was conservative and not happy with McCain did that, there would have been a great stir. Yes, the Obama would have won anyway, but it would have sent a MESSAGE to the republican party coordinators that the American "republicans" are no longer happy with the candidates being turned out and are saying it by voting for somebody else. Instead the American conservatives have swallowed the bullet and taken far less than ANY of our founding fathers would have settled for.

I could go on all day :) I will read your defense of McCain. I also encourage you to go to this website
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270

He is borderline and not really that conservative at all (from what I see of his voting record). At the best, I believe he would have kept our country in its same state, but not made it better.

Anonymous said...

Looks like it was a wasted vote.

Katie said...

Nothing is wasted if it's done with conscience and conviction, my friend. This is something each person has to find out for himself and you could listen to me preach on it all day, but it won't get through until FAITH is achieved. My faith was small, even zero, that Baldwin would win, but I had enough faith to cast my vote for who I really thought should win. As I've been saying, if enough people in this nation did this, a message would be sent and we might actually be heard... But, tell me, how can I preach that kind of faith if I don't live it out myself? Surely you must see that...

Let me end this discussion saying that I did what the Lord Jesus told me to do. If I had done anything else, it would have been disobedience, and I would not have been pure in his sight (1 Peter 1:22 or somewhere around there). And if you did what he told you to do too, then I'm glad you voted with YOUR conscience. I just want to point out that fear can cloud one's conscience...

God bless.

Shamus said...

Lately, i've become obsessed with browsing other bloggers' profiles based on favorite movies.
You and I both like "The Great Escape" So then I came across your Chuck Baldwin Post. I thought "Clearly here is another person who is as smart as me"

Happy Thanksgiving from a total stranger.