yarbroughs dot org

I’ve saved this post for a while, for fear of pissing off a couple of my readers (about 40% of my normal readership, in fact). I now no longer really care what they’ll say, and my wife already knows this anyway.

I didn’t vote Republican.

There, I said it. I didn’t vote Republican. Now before knickers get twisted, keep in mind that I didn’t vote Democrat either. I voted Libertarian. “But OMG, Why?” you may ask… and the answer is simple: Because I know the Libertarian won’t win.

I’m not quite what the current Republican party calls Republican. I still call myself a conservative, but I think the Republican party has left conservativism behind in recent years. Frankly, I don’t think McCain’s much of a maverick anymore, though eight years ago he might have been one. Palin doesn’t impress me, though she doesn’t really frighten me either. Palin’s a plus in my eyes, simply because if they win the election SNL’s got good material for Tina Fey for the next 4 years. I do love Tina so.

Obama? Not on your life. While I don’t want to see him assassinated, I don’t want to see him President either. Yes, I know that’s a probability, especially 2 days prior to the election, though I don’t think it’s a lock yet. I simply think Republicans are avoiding any and all polls that don’t begin with “Fox” or “Christian Science Monitor.” We’ll see in about 60 hours.

So why Libertarian? What is it about Barr/Root that got my vote?

The fact that they couldn’t win.

I threw out my vote. I admit it freely, but I had a purpose. My recent posts lamenting the state of the modern two-party election system were a start. I want to see more viable candidates for President in the future. We’ve not seen a person with a decent chance since Perot in ‘92, and before that it was John Anderson in ‘80. I’m tired of the two-party system, because most people use it to cast votes against people, rather than FOR people. We’re not encouraging the best candidates to run for president by voting against a party, which is what most people do.

Why Libertarian? Knowing I wasn’t going to vote for the big two, I actually researched party platforms for everyone else on my ballot — the Greens, the Socialists (yes, them), the Constitution Party, Libertarians, and the independent candidates. The Libertarian platform was actually closest to what I currently believe in. Yes, I know Barr’s a former Republican who only VERY recently renounced some of his hardline Neocon values. It doesn’t bother me. I didn’t vote for Barr; I voted to get some exposure to the Libertarian party. If the Green party were more up my alley, I’d have done the same thing despite the fact that McKinney’s a raving loon who left her party because she got killed in the Dem primary a couple of years ago.

Before anyone thinks I had an epiphany and am abandoning the Republican party, fret not. Or just fret a little. I’m still registered as (R), and for the moment I have no desire to change. However, I do think the Republican party has abandoned me, and am watching them closely for confirmation.

I’ll still be watching Tuesday evening, looking for Barr to receive a significant percentage of the popular vote. I hope this leads SOMEwhere.