No Coercion

The farcical puppet show known as Election Day is upon us. As I’ve said before, if you’re going to participate in this charade that seems to have many people convinced that they are somehow living in a free country, at least take an actual stand for freedom by voting for Libertarians. No, they may not win this time around, but don’t be a short-term thinker. Even if you aren’t necessarily in love with the Libertarian Party (you know who you are), I’m sure you like the idea of political competition and having additional voices in the debate to keep the major parties from completely getting away with murder.

So think about these very awesome reasons to vote Libertarian today:

The more votes Libertarian candidates get, the more they’ll have to be given a voice by the media outlets. They won’t be so easy to ignore in news stories, debates, and polling. The conversation will be much richer and more focused.

The more votes Libertarian candidates get, the greater the chance that they’ll win next time or the time after that. There’s no need to mince words. Weaker-minded people prefer to vote for winners over the candidates they actually agree with and will be increasingly willing to vote for Libertarians as they see others doing so.

The more votes Libertarian candidates get, the harder it will be for state governments to keep them off the next ballot. In North Carolina, if we can just get 2% for our presidential or gubernatorial candidates (Barr and Munger, respectively), we’re automatically allowed on the ballot for the next election. There would be no need for us to spend our entire war chest just to collect petition signatures for ballot access.

And, of course, you should vote Libertarian because you believe in voting on principle rather than for the lesser of the two evils, and you agree with the Libertarian principle of not initiating force or fraud against others–the principle on which every plank of the Libertarian Party platform is built.

Now this appeal wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t also acknowledge and promote libertarian individuals who are running under the banner of another party and not competing directly with Libertarian Party candidates. To that end, most of the “Ron Paul Republicans” around the country are probably worth looking at. In the Triangle area of North Carolina, a really impressive guy trying to unseat ‘the great and powerful’ David Price in the U.S. House is B.J. Lawson. The guy is sharp, personable, and very libertarian (so much so that he has been thoroughly rejected by the local party establishment, whose big-government, neocon “Chosen One” Lawson soundly defeated in the primary). But you do have to be careful with some of the Ron Paul Republicans as their views on immigration, abortion, and gay rights can sometimes be rather unlibertarian. At any rate, B.J. Lawson and others like him could certainly shake things up in Washington and would likely garner increased attention to the libertarian philosophy that they mostly adhere to.

So as much as I feel that voting gives sanction to an inherently unjust system, as long as there are those of the libertarian philosophy on the ballot, I guess you should get out there and cast a vote for human freedom.

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