Jack Gannon Says:
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 am

Mr. Steel has written an ‘absolutely beautiful’ letter. It’s about conviction, and doing what’s right for our country in the long-run. You must read it. It will make you proud to be an American. It sure did so to me!

10 Thumbs Up

The 2 party choice currently is a joke: Enormous overspending or Ridiculous overspending. Lots of War or Even More War. Socialism or Communism. Bought and owned by Exon or by Qwest. Both are partially paid for by hedge funds and wall street.

I would recommend to anyone interested in keeping this country from joining the ranks of the third world to Vote for the candidate who will get us out of foreign military actions, chop spending, and what we do spend, make it count! Oh yeah, and a candidate who will not ignore the constitution would be really nice!

I'm voting for Barr and proud of it.

I cast my vote for Barr on Tuesday morning. It's time that We the People end this stranglehold that the 2 Party System has on the American Citizen. But I'm not going to stop there, it's time that the media (no, I did not say liberal/conservative media) stops its biased coverage of the 2 major parties and covers all the parties that are on enough state ballots that mathematically have a chance at winning, ESPECIALLY the polls that have A) Barack Obama, B) John McCain and C) Undecided/Other. There are millions of voters that have decided not to vote for A or B, but where is their answer on the poll? “Other” does not offer a true choice.

I am amazed that some of you believe that a vote for Barr is a vote stolen from Obama. I hear it said much more often that a vote for Barr is a vote stolen from McCain, thus helping Obama. Some McCain supporters are scared to death of a possible Barr spoiler for them.

I must concede that I believe that Obama would be far worse than McCain because Obama is a socialist who favors redistributing and spreading the wealth. And it irks Republicans when I tell them that because Obama would be worse than McCain, that I want Obama to defeat McCain in a crushing landslide! Only then will Republicans get back to the ideas of less government and more freedom.

I still won't vote Republican even then. I will always vote Libertarian.

Hopefully the choices will be better next election and the right wing will lose its dominating effect on the GOP, allowing a McCain to campaign as who he really is.

The question is, can anyone convince me that more taxes and less constitutional liberties is a good thing for America? Can anyone convince me spending 10 billion a month policing another country, where our mere presense only serves to incite other humans who suffer, due to our intervention, to habor anomosity towards us, how is that good for the Nation? Do you really wangt more war, Obama and McCain do, well do ya'? Do you really want the federal gov to own your home, they do, well?

Look if you really are into letting the granny state run your life, great, if you really like paying taxes so that American money can funaled all over the globe, good for you, vote McBama. If you think pre WWII Germany had it right with it's fiat monetary system, it's fearmongering, and it's police state, great, vote ObaCaint. If however you believe in personal freedom, the Constitution, balanced budgets, less war, and logic, then you should vote Bob Barr.

Thanks for your time

My son is five years old so it will be lost on him but I get your point. My wife told our daughters (11 and 10 years old) why I voted for Bob Barr. She said something to the effect that “your father likes and respects Obama but doesn't like or respect the political group he represents”. My daughters response:

Daddy always gotta be different!

You gotta love the children. LOL!

You have your pride on casting a “protest” vote during what will probably be the most important vote of your lifetime and there is nothing I can say to change your mind.

Is it just me, or do supporters of the two-party system always fall back on the “But this is the most presidential election in your lifetime” argument. They trotted it out in 2004. They repeated the argument in 2004. Loviatar is reviving the argument now in 2008. And God knows, they'll be arguing the same thing in 2012, 2016, 2020….

Anything to make you think that you vote for a third party candidate is a wasted vote and that their vote for Democrat or Republican is somehow meaningful.

You know, the Republican Party was once a Third Party. And they abolished SLAVERY.

People seem to forget that Third Parties have done more for equality than any two-party system.

You have my utmost respect for voting for a third party candidate and standing up to those who would tell you that you're wasting your vote. All this talk about third party candidates being “spoilers” is faulty logic in that it presupposes that votes that go to third party candidates somehow “belong” to either the Democratic or Republican candidate.

Your criticism of our two-party system is completely fair. It's not simply that Democratic and Republican Party platforms are lacking…it's that the Democratic and Republican Parties have gamed the system in their favor, writing ballot access laws that make it much harder to get on the ballot as an Independent or third party candidate than as a Democrat or a Republican. Then, to make matters worse, Democrats and Republicans don't even obey their own ballot access laws. If a Libertarian or a Green comes up even a 100 signatures short out of 50,000, they fail to achieve ballot access. However, on at least two occasions (2004 in Illinois and 2008 in Texas), one of the two party candidates failed to be nominated within the period of time as specified by state law, and the Democrats and Republicans simply overlooked the law and placed the candidate on the ballot anyway.

Frankly, the fact that Democrats and Republicans refuse to follow their own ballot access laws (the very ones they use to prevent Independent and third party candidates from getting on the ballot) is something I find to be hypocritical, undemocratic, and downright disgusting.

Any Democratic or Republican Party supporter who wants to somehow defend those kind of actions, I'm all ears.

I voted Libertarian in 2004 and was considering doing so again in 2008, but I just couldn't bring myself to vote for Bob Barr, whose pro-War on Drugs and pro-Defense of Marriage Act days are still too not far enough behind him. Barr has made some important steps in the right direction, and he has done a great job of criticizing the Democrats and the Republicans, but frankly, if I'm going to vote Libertarian, I want a candidate that speaks out unapologetically against the War on Drugs and unapologetically against self-righteous politicians who would legislate their own versions of morality on the rest of us.

Instead, I have already cast my ballot (via absentee ballot) for Charles Jay (President) and Thomas Knapp (Vice President) of the Boston Tea Party, which splintered off from the Libertarian Party back in 2006. Obviously, they have no chance of winning the election, but then voting isn't supposed to be about bragging that you voted for the guy/gal who won.

Interestingly, there seems to be quite of few of us at TMV with libertarian leanings or at least libertarian sympathies. I'm curious how many other people at TMV intend to vote libertarian or for some other third party candidate. Could TMV be one of the first truly “multiparty” blogs in the blogosphere?

Vote your conscience- that is all any of us can do. But I still have not gotten an answer to my question about what the attraction is to Barr-other than as a protest vote against the 2 party system.????

November 4th we can change history!

Palin scares me because I get the feeling she is just winging it. Plus her “you are the real Americans- the hard-working God-fearing ones” really hacked me off. So what are the rest of us- the slothful, faux Americans who want the government to do everything but wipe our tushes for us? I don't like the reason she is on the ticket- which is to lure angry Hillary voters (yes I was one but no dice here!) and get the angry base out. Her palling around with terrorists crossed the line also.

Your words are not lost on me at all. I've been preaching up Barack Obama to my three children. My oldest (11 years old) always talks about Obama this and Obama that. Got his website as her homepage on her computer. So the history is not lost. But as I said, I had to be true to myself. But I can tell you this, if Governor Sarah Palin was at the top of the Republican ticket, I would have had a much easier time voting for Obama. As much as a like Sarah Palin's overall persona (I serve on the PTA with women like Sarah Palin), I just think see her as POTUS at this time.

McCain, Obama, and Barr do not “scare” me as Presidents.

For me it is an easy decision. McCain's choice of Palin , his capitulation to the right wing and the prospect of a conservative SCOTUS did it for me.

I'm not 100% behind the Democrats, but I really liked Obama's speeches to the black community, and the fact that he kept Sharpton, Farrakhan and Jackson out of his campaign and constantly rejected opportunities to play the race card or the victim. He's upstanding, honorable and a great role model for our youth.

Once he beat the Clintons, I felt he could beat McCain and the GOP smear machine- not by fighting, but by reconciliation. More and more Republicans are rejecting the far right's my way or the highway way of thinking— and after the past 8 years it feels great.

Just kidding,

I went to social tonight- just 6 suburban women. NONE are voting for McCain — 2 or 3 are voting for Barr. Its a little shocking that he's got so much support, when he's barely on the radar, and is a conservative Republican masquerading as a Libertarian in my book. But vote your conscience. – Its Obama for me- I want to make history, and I want every minority kid to dream that they can do it too. Ok maybe its bleeding heart- but so what.

Loviatar- I understand perfectly how you feel about Hillary. She was trashed by the media and by her party. And I look at Palin and I think– you are not even in the same league. Will we get another chance with this amazing woman?

I guess I didn't phrase my question well. But I was wondering when, relative to when it actually came time to vote, did you decide. And you answered that in great detail.

Many times in my life, be it for various candidates or issues, I have waited until the privacy of the voting booth to decide. I can't say I'm that conflicted this time around, but you never know. Either way, I find it hard to imagine that many of us don't go through that process when it comes down to crunch time. After all, even if you've studied the issues till the cows come home there's always that lingering doubt, when when it comes down to brass tacks, that maybe you've missed something. I don't know how anyone can avoid it. Unless you're an expert on every last detail of every issue or candidate you're required to vote on, there's no good way to know what ramifications will entail from the decision you make on any given level. And even then, you have to be pretty arrogant to believe you're an expert on every last detail. In the end, the best you can do is the best can you offer. And I hope everyone offers the best they can.

Thanks for sharing your story – I really enjoyed reading it.