I respect your decision, but I'm kinda sad-- I figure that Bush is awful enough to merit lowering one's standards for president. But your choice, your choice
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may i say again who much I love the word "Floripan"? s'cool ^_^
yay voting!
Jack: If I didn't make that abundantly clear before (as people seem to keep asking me), there you go.
no, you had. anyways, i find it sorta odd that they ask. i suppose i don't refuse to answer people when they ask who i'm voting for, but I always thought it was a personal thing, and the question makes me unconfortable (mainly because i feel ill-equipped to debate my position adequately, unlike yourself *grin*). my mom will tell people who she voted for, but my dad won't, even to my mom. it's just a thing with him. although he did tell me once that he'd almost never voted for the person that won...
Anonymous voting is still important, but very, very minimally so. It used to be that people would sell their votes or be press-ganged into voting a certain way. While there are plenty of allegations of intentional disenfranchisement being passed around, that is ultimately the result of ignorance, not of voting anonymity. Essentially what I'm saying here is that there's not as much of a good reason anymore to demand anonymity
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well, only two candidates may be taken really seriously. But here's the question: are the two parties always the same? I mean, there may be two best candidates, sure, but they don't always have the same platform; aren't of the same exact closely-tied "opposition." the difference is that nobody EVER takes third party candidates in the US seriously; it's almost consistently a joke (Perot was the first scare in many decades in 1992 with a whole 12% or so of the national vote; I couldn't tell you when the last one before that was). Your parties rise and fall; ours have no fears. There will always be democrats and there will always be republicans, and if the two parties generally agree on some things, then no mainstream person will EVER see an opposing view on the topic.
We'll see about voter turnout. Everyone has an opinion, but I'm not convinced that, despite all the activism going on, it'll really be that much higher than before. Hopefully I'll be wrong, but I already see a lot of people around whom you with think would vote having been too lazy to register by the deadline.
Oh, and to address your first question, he's a liberetarian. If you don't know, they're generally considered right-of-republicans, but they're really off the normal right/left scale. Dems, Reps, Greens all believe in imposing their beliefs on others through government. Liberetarians, simply put, do not. They in many ways exemplify what the republicans stood for way back when: miniscule government, low taxes, pro-business. But they (generally) lack the religious fundamentalism that accompanies the republican mentality that pushes republicans to legislate out abortion, gay marriage (and gay sex in many cases), stem cell research, etc.
Did I mention that I am NOT a liberetarian? I am not pro-business and pro-property, I am pro-competition. I am not small-government I am effective government. So although in a number of ways, like those mentioned above, the pragmatics of my philosophies intersect with the pragmatics of the liberetarian philosophies, in many ways they also diverge significantly.
Moreover, Badnarik is kind of, well, crazy
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To help those in other countries understand: votes in MA don't count at all (for President) because MA is going Democrat anyway. A vote for Kerry will not help Kerry and a vote for Bush will not help Bush. However, a vote for a third party will send a message that either the parties need to be more responsive to the population, or they'll start to lose influence. If I vote, I'm also voting Badnarik. Unfortunately, I don't know where to vote, because nobody is telling anyone in my town where to vote. I guess I can try the internet.
Actually, regardless of the outcome, I'd be quite pleased if the electoral vote was once again non-representative of the popular vote! That would give legistaltors that little extra kick to scrap the college.
I had that problem in Wellesley. I didn't vote in Mass in 2000, but I was seriously deflected surrounding the 2002 election and some other random town stuff. I loathe that town.
I love that you used ginger ice cream in your example. I love ginger ice cream. Especially in a ginger frappe with chocolate syrup. Or with hot fudge. Mmm.
Actually, I don't see how you can drink ginger frappes. The ginger bits always get stuck in the straw! I mean, I love the concept, but the implementation is always so buggy that I just gave up trying with ginger frappes long ago.
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yay voting!
Jack: If I didn't make that abundantly clear before (as people seem to keep asking me), there you go.
no, you had. anyways, i find it sorta odd that they ask. i suppose i don't refuse to answer people when they ask who i'm voting for, but I always thought it was a personal thing, and the question makes me unconfortable (mainly because i feel ill-equipped to debate my position adequately, unlike yourself *grin*). my mom will tell people who she voted for, but my dad won't, even to my mom. it's just a thing with him. although he did tell me once that he'd almost never voted for the person that won...
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Did I mention that I am NOT a liberetarian? I am not pro-business and pro-property, I am pro-competition. I am not small-government I am effective government. So although in a number of ways, like those mentioned above, the pragmatics of my philosophies intersect with the pragmatics of the liberetarian philosophies, in many ways they also diverge significantly.
Moreover, Badnarik is kind of, well, crazy ( ... )
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For the electoral vote, no, they don't count. But there is also the popular vote, and it isn't insignificant.
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That said, I'ma vote Kerry.
...*sigh*
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Actually, I don't see how you can drink ginger frappes. The ginger bits always get stuck in the straw! I mean, I love the concept, but the implementation is always so buggy that I just gave up trying with ginger frappes long ago.
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