Why I Won’t Waste My Vote
October 12th, 2008 by natalie
Either this week or next, advance ballots will be sent out in the mail and American citizens will begin voting in the election that has been garnering attention for almost two years. Hailed as the most important election in our lifetime (haven’t I heard that before?), we have seen many twists and turns and unexpected moves as the candidates have traveled the long road to Election Day. Democrats are more energized than they have been in years and record numbers of new voters are registering and affiliating themselves with the Democratic Party in order to be a part of this historic election. Republicans found themselves scrambling from one candidate to the next in the primary season as one preferred candidate after another was knocked out of the race. Finally they wound up hooking their wagons to McCain’s campaign, which only months before had more closely resembled a dead horse. In a brilliant [read: perfectly calculated political] move, McCain tapped Sarah Palin as his VP and most of the remaining conservative voices who weren’t yet on board with the Republican establishment quickly mounted their own political high horses and threw their full support to the McCain/Palin bandwagon.
A journalist friend of mine once said that the media doesn’t write the news, but they define what news is. If the media doesn’t report it, it might as well have not even happened as far as most people are concerned. If we could see how much indirect influence the predominantly liberal news media has had on our thinking and decisions, I think we would be appalled. For example, according to the media we have two choices in the Presidential election: Barack Obama or John McCain. How many people even know that there are other candidates running? Ever heard of Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney? No? Why is that? Is it because they “don’t have a chance” that the media pretends they don’t exist? Or is it because the media pretends they don’t exist that they “don’t have a chance”? Well, I for one prefer not to let the mainstream media inform my political understanding or dictate my voting principles.
Let’s not forget that we live in a Representative Republic (not a Democracy…and I wish someone would please inform the front runners of that…). As American citizens we have the unparalleled privilege of looking at a full slate of candidates and choosing the one that most closely aligns with our views to represent us at every level of government. Of course it is unlikely that we will find a candidate who perfectly represents our views on every issue, but can I just say that it is an incredible mark of stupidity to deliberately vote for candidates that do not align with our views and positions when there are other candidates running who do. This is how we end up with an elitist, increasingly liberal, pool of politicians ruining, uh, I mean running our country. They are far removed from what are supposedly still the strongly held values of the vast majority of Americans. How can this be? We are voting them into office, that’s how! If we want godly leaders who will uphold righteous laws and punish evil doers, preserve our rights and freedoms, and insure our safety insomuch as is possible, we have to vote for them.
It is the ultimate insult to our form of government and the vision our Founding Fathers had for this nation for us to deliberately vote for candidates who do not represent our views. Let’s look past the propaganda the mainstream media and political establishment so eagerly try to feed us and explore all the candidates. And above all, let’s resolve not to waste any votes this election season!
Links for those interested in exploring all the Presidential candidates:
Chuck Baldwin: http://www.baldwin08.com/
Bob Barr: http://www.bobbarr2008.com/
John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/
Cynthia McKinney: http://votetruth08.com/
Ralph Nader: http://www.votenader.org/
Barack Obama: http://www.barackobama.com/
