Wasting Your Vote

How many voters get pressured into voting for someone they don't truly believe in, simply because they're told they're wasting their vote if they lean in a different direction?

Four years ago, I was in support of Ralph Nader. I believe in a more decentralized government, and Nader seemed to be the only candidate who supports the idea of state's rights (i know, novel concept).

I caught so much flack for voting Nader. My Democratic friends told me i was stupid for throwing my vote away since Nader had no shot to win. My wife was a Nader fan as well, but she eventually succumbed to her Democrat-friends peer pressure by voting for Kerry because "at least he has a chance."

I'm reading through some threads on these boards and i'm absolutely disgusted with the insinuations that if you vote for Ron Paul, or Kucinich, or even Mike Gravel, that you're throwing your vote away. How can you be throwing your vote away when you're voting for who you believe in?

I'm so sick and tired of the political peer pressure. Don't you people understand that if we stopped trying to vote for the winner and started voting for who we like rather than who has a shot, those lesser candidates might actually have a shot.

Get your heads out of your asses, please. Some of you talk out of both sides of your mouths. You talk about fairness in the political system, you talk about how it's time for a change, then you turn around and start tearing people down for expressing their support by voting for the person they WANT to win, not who they think is going to win. I'm just so sick of the double talk here on AP as well as ALL OVER THE NATION.

I'm going to vote for Ron Paul if he makes it to the General Election. I'm going to vote for him because that's who *I* want to be the president. You're welcome to tell me that i'm voting for the wrong person because he's not right for the country, but i'm sick and tired of hearing about how i'm throwing away my vote.

If you take anything away from this post, let it be this: The only way you'll throw your vote away is if you succumb to political peer pressure and vote for someone just because they have a better shot. Vote your conscience, vote your soul and you won't have regrets.

Agreed. I dont think that it matters what anyone else says about "thowing your vote away". What ends up happening is that people end up feeling like they have to vote, and in doing so, end up throwing their vote away by voting for the lesser of two evils.

I am guilty of this as much as the next guy. Its just a shame that democracy has come down to this point. There are plenty of good candidates that practice what they preach. But in the end we get two schmucks that have the most money from big business and endorsements from the elite, and thats who ends up running our country.

The way I see it, it is a lose lose situation from here on out.

reply to post by The Cyfre


"Politics are an art form."

We have to be real here. Now more than ever, we are faced with an election that will turn our country around, or potentially seal it's fate. We have good men that have been working as a buffer against the government for the people. These men running for president include Biden, Kucinich, Paul, and Gravel. This is where it gets quite difficult.

Although good men, the only ones who have any sort of kinetic momentum right now are Paul and Biden. Everybody has blacklisted Gravel and Kucinich thanks to mainstream media and their ignorance of politics and the media subversion.

As a Paul supporter, I see "our" message prying through the bars of mainstream media. We are almost in the clear, especially with the "money bomb." People are talking, people are getting their message out through the original means. Word of mouth. I wish the same were true for Kucinich and Gravel. But, as concerned Americans, we have to rally behind one cause. If we don't, our voices will not be heard and will be owned by the likes of Romney, Guiliani, or Clinton. We will be washed out into obscurity again like we have for the past 8.

As concerned people, we need to make a collective effort to get somebody, anybody into office to allow our voice to make a # of difference. If we get somebody like Ron Paul in office, that will start a chain reaction of honest politics and new honest politicians. Believe that the stubborn old prick won't let ANYTHING that's not right for America slide. He's as fed up as you and I.

We can't lose this opportunity. I know we all want "our guy" to win, but I'm wiling to compromise with any candidate that I feel has unwaivering integrity. Ron Paul has the momentum and the attention out of all of the potentially good men.

If we don't push change in a united fashion. We're done for. We really are.

I would never criticize anyone for "throwing their vote away." It's their vote, and they can use it how they want to.

The only people that I have ever heard use that line have been major party members whose candidate lost. I heard a Daddy Bush supporter in my family criticize another member of my family who voted for Perot after Clinton won. They kept arguing about it, until Perot supporter (grandma) said, "There's nothing wrong with voting for Perot," then Daddy Bush supporter (mom) said, "Except that you may as well have just voted for Clinton!"

Sheesh... Grandma is no longer with us, but I have convinced mom to vote for Ron Paul in the primary in February. Now, if he doesn't get the nomination, and later runs as an independent... I don't know.