I saw this earlier:
I know I am ignoring Tim F.s’ sage advice to just ignore the whole Conor Friedersdorf post, but I can’t resist. Look, there is a simple reason I have not responded to that bloviating magnum opus from Conor either respectfully or disrespectfully (until now, alas). And that reason is I have been blogging for a decade, and I know when I am being trolled.
Look- every fucking election cycle, some pseudo-intellectual wanker out to make a name for himself pens a 10,000 word screed with the novel thesis that… GASP… both candidates have flaws (SUCH A NEW AND NOVEL IDEA! WHY HAS NO ONE EVER COME UP WITH THIS REALIZATION BEFORE). I’m just over commenting on it. Yes, Obama has flaws, yes I disapprove of the drone strikes. But it takes a weapons grade moron to think that voting for Romney or voting for a third party is in any way going to change the status quo. It takes heightened levels of self-delusion.
First of all, the main reason that it will not change anything is because the American public has spoken- they don’t give a shit about drone strikes. There is no political pressure on Obama to stop, and there most certainly will be nothing keeping Romney from doing far worse- AS HE HAS STATED HE WILL. They don’t care about Gitmo, either, a lot of them support the death penalty, and they sure as fuck don’t care about a few bombs dropped on what the media and Pentagon tidily lable “terrorists.” You may not like it, but this is the reality we live in.
Second, the other reason it will not change anything voting for a third party is that the third party is not going to win. Period. End of story. No third party candidate has been elected President since, well, when? And if a third party candidate like Johnson won, then what? He’s just get blocked by congress every step of the way. Probably with bipartisan consensus.
Third, politicians do not respond to people who vote against them. Should Obama win, does young Conor think he will suddenly take his concerns seriously? “DEAR OBAMA, I FLAMED YOU AND VOTED AGAINST YOU, WILL YOU NOW LISTEN TO ME?” Good luck with that.
So for these reasons and many more, I just simply ignore idiots who say that one special issue means they can’t fulfill their obligations as a citizen seriously and make a choice between the lesser of evils. Sure, they can get off on their bad selves and pat themselves on the back for their bold and pointless stand. But they should at least have the dignity to shut the fuck up the next four years should Romney win and everything gets worse on the issues they care so much about they can’t be bothered to make a rational decision. Every election is the lesser of two evils in our current party system. Choosing to vote for a third party because of your personal issues doesn’t make you a principle thinker, it makes you a bloviating douchebag.
But, like I said, since we go through this same sort of Slate driven contrarianism and nihilism every two years, you already knew that. I simply refuse to take any one who votes for someone over Obama or Romney seriously. One of them will be the next President. Anyone who chooses to vote for anyone else has made their choice, and that choice was to be irrelevant.
*** Update ***
This will never not be accurate:
Every year in Happy Gumdrop Fairy-Tale Land all of the sprites and elves and woodland creatures gather together to pick the Rainbow Sunshine Queen. Everyone is there: the Lollipop Guild, the Star-Twinkle Toddlers, the Sparkly Unicorns, the Cookie Baking Apple-cheeked Grandmothers, the Fluffy Bunny Bund, the Rumbly-Tumbly Pupperoos, the Snowflake Princesses, the Baby Duckies All-In-A-Row, the Laughing Babies, and the Dykes on Bikes. They have a big picnic with cupcakes and gumdrops and pudding pops, stopping only to cast their votes by throwing Magic Wishing Rocks into the Well of Laughter, Comity, and Good Intentions. Afterward they spend the rest of the night dancing and singing and waving glow sticks until dawn when they tumble sleepy-eyed into beds made of the purest and whitest goose down where they dream of angels and clouds of spun sugar.
You don’t live there.
Grow the fuck up.
BY VOTING FOR GARY JOHNSON I ABSOLVE MYSELF OF ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS THE NEXT FOUR YEARS BUT WILL STILL NOT SHUT THE FUCK UP.
If You Choose Not to Decide You Still Have Made a ChoicePost + Comments (189)