Why I, as a Democrat, voted for Gary Johnson
posted about 12 years ago
I voted for Gary Johnson. Please, everyone, pick your jaws up off of the floor. Why, you may ask? My answer is twofold.
Maryland is one of the democratic strongholds of the USA, regardless of who I vote for, Obama will still carry our state and its electoral votes. Given that the popular vote % is irrelevant in the presidential election thanks to the Electoral college, my singular less vote will not reduce Obama's chances of winning.
The second prong is this: The two party system needs to die. Hard. There are candidates that are arguably better than Mittens and Obama combined that will never have a good chance to be elected unless the two party system is done away with. By voting for Gary Johnson, I give him one more vote towards the 5% of the popular vote he needs to be able to benefit from public and super PAC funding in 2016. I would rather use my vote to dismantle a broken system than to ensure Obama's reelection. Even besides that, Gary Johnson's political stances aren't far off from my own. He supports privatizing the Space program, LGBTQ rights, the DREAM act, the abolition of the death penalty, and most importantly, unlike Obama, actively opposes acts like NDAA, SOPA & PIPA, and wants to make sure that the government cannot invasively watch its citizens.
Don't think that you're throwing away your vote by not voting democrat or republican. That is exactly the mindset that we need to crush in order to do away with the two party system. George Washington was right when he warned us of the dangers of political parties, all they have done is divide us and pit us against one another.
It's kind of funny that a short few months ago I was excited about being able to cast my first vote for a black president, and now I'm casting it for someone who I didn't even know existed at the time.
Maryland is one of the democratic strongholds of the USA, regardless of who I vote for, Obama will still carry our state and its electoral votes. Given that the popular vote % is irrelevant in the presidential election thanks to the Electoral college, my singular less vote will not reduce Obama's chances of winning.
The second prong is this: The two party system needs to die. Hard. There are candidates that are arguably better than Mittens and Obama combined that will never have a good chance to be elected unless the two party system is done away with. By voting for Gary Johnson, I give him one more vote towards the 5% of the popular vote he needs to be able to benefit from public and super PAC funding in 2016. I would rather use my vote to dismantle a broken system than to ensure Obama's reelection. Even besides that, Gary Johnson's political stances aren't far off from my own. He supports privatizing the Space program, LGBTQ rights, the DREAM act, the abolition of the death penalty, and most importantly, unlike Obama, actively opposes acts like NDAA, SOPA & PIPA, and wants to make sure that the government cannot invasively watch its citizens.
Don't think that you're throwing away your vote by not voting democrat or republican. That is exactly the mindset that we need to crush in order to do away with the two party system. George Washington was right when he warned us of the dangers of political parties, all they have done is divide us and pit us against one another.
It's kind of funny that a short few months ago I was excited about being able to cast my first vote for a black president, and now I'm casting it for someone who I didn't even know existed at the time.
