I'd like to share a few of my thoughts on voting strategy. I know that this subject is likely to spark a flame war, but such flame wars always erupt around election time anyway, so here goes:
First of all, I expect that everyone who bothers to read this thread will also bother to vote. I also expect that none of you will vote for someone who actively, vocally, and proudly attacks the RKBA, even though some of you will vote for candidates perceived by others as being almost as bad as the hard-core anti-gunners. So, even though it's natural for us to feel passionately about our political choices, let's keep in mind that energy expended against each other is largely misdirected.
Next I would like to point out that the "pragmatic" strategy of holding one's nose and voting for an unappealing, but "viable" candidate to keep an even worse candidate from winning has an unfortunate long-term consequence: it encourages the "lesser of two evils" to tilt away from the desired path to a course just a hair better than that chosen by the "greater of two evils". Conversely, while "throwing away" one's vote for a better but less "viable" candidate is arguably a losing strategy in the short term, it does provide a long term incentive for "lesser of two evil" candidates to do the right thing for the sake of viability. I don't have an easy formula for deciding which strategy is most appropriate.
Finally I would like to point out that as much as we value voting, our individual votes are probably less significant, in the grand scheme of things, than the influence we have upon our fellow citizens, especially those who waste their franchise by not voting at all. I know that my vote, for instance, is not going to decide the next presidential election unless the electoral totals from the other states are nearly even and if the other voters in Ohio are split dead even. No matter how diligently, intelligently and vigorously I push the VOTE button, my ballot counts exactly the same as that of the airhead who wanders into the polling place on a whim and plays "eenie-meenie-minie-mo" in the voting booth. But if I can inspire just one fellow citizen who would otherwise have said "To heck with it" and sat at home on election day, then my electoral impact is doubled.
The soapbox is now open.
First of all, I expect that everyone who bothers to read this thread will also bother to vote. I also expect that none of you will vote for someone who actively, vocally, and proudly attacks the RKBA, even though some of you will vote for candidates perceived by others as being almost as bad as the hard-core anti-gunners. So, even though it's natural for us to feel passionately about our political choices, let's keep in mind that energy expended against each other is largely misdirected.
Next I would like to point out that the "pragmatic" strategy of holding one's nose and voting for an unappealing, but "viable" candidate to keep an even worse candidate from winning has an unfortunate long-term consequence: it encourages the "lesser of two evils" to tilt away from the desired path to a course just a hair better than that chosen by the "greater of two evils". Conversely, while "throwing away" one's vote for a better but less "viable" candidate is arguably a losing strategy in the short term, it does provide a long term incentive for "lesser of two evil" candidates to do the right thing for the sake of viability. I don't have an easy formula for deciding which strategy is most appropriate.
Finally I would like to point out that as much as we value voting, our individual votes are probably less significant, in the grand scheme of things, than the influence we have upon our fellow citizens, especially those who waste their franchise by not voting at all. I know that my vote, for instance, is not going to decide the next presidential election unless the electoral totals from the other states are nearly even and if the other voters in Ohio are split dead even. No matter how diligently, intelligently and vigorously I push the VOTE button, my ballot counts exactly the same as that of the airhead who wanders into the polling place on a whim and plays "eenie-meenie-minie-mo" in the voting booth. But if I can inspire just one fellow citizen who would otherwise have said "To heck with it" and sat at home on election day, then my electoral impact is doubled.
The soapbox is now open.