Your Vote Counts Twice
Your Support Counts Twice

When you vote for a candidate, your vote counts twice. It counts once for the candidate. It counts again for the candidate’s party.

Even when your candidate loses, your vote for the candidate shows that the candidate’s party and the ideas it represents have support. When a D.C. resident votes for a Republican Presidential candidate, or a Utah resident votes for the matching Democrat, they know their candidate will lose in their state. There is almost no chance that their popular votes will translate into electoral votes for their candidates. Their popular votes are still important, because they show that their candidate enjoys popular support for his views, popular support that may well manifest itself in other elections for other offices.

That’s why there are no wasted votes. Every vote counts as a show of support for the candidate’s positions and ideas.

The same is true for support. When you give a candidate money or volunteer time, you aren’t just supporting that candidate. You’re also giving legitimacy to his party. You are sending the message that people like that political party enough to invest their hours and their checkbooks.

What does this mean for Libertarians?

When you vote for a real Libertarian candidate, your vote counts twice. It counts once for the candidate. It counts again for the candidate’s party. Your vote for any Libertarian candidate not only lends support to the candidate you voted for, it builds our Libertarian Party.

When you support a Libertarian candidate with your money and your time, your money and time counts twice. It counts once for the candidate. It counts again for our Libertarian Party. Your money and time, invested in the campaign of any Libertarian candidate, gives our party the legitimacy that one day will give us an electoral majority.

On the other hand, when you support a Republican or a Democrat,you are lending legitimacy to the Republican or Democratic Party. It does not matter who the Republican or Democrat is. No matter what a nice person they are, when you give them money you are giving money to support the policies and principles of the Republican and Democratic parties.

A donation to a Republican is a donation in support of Republican warrantless wiretaps. It’s a donation in support of Republican warrantless searches. It’s a donation in the support of the Republican War On Women And Gays. It’s a donation in support of the Republican Party whose national leaders have had American citizens kidnapped, held without trial, and tortured. A donation to any Republican is support for the Republican party torture policies.

If you actually support the Libertarian Party, you have no legitimate excuse for giving money to any Democrat or Republican.

(Reprint of this article is strongly supported: We have too many Libertarians who think they can donate to a Republican presidential candidate without being responsible for the consequences.)

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George Phillies is a candidate for the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nomination. His campaign web site is located at www.phillies2008.com. As a matter of course, Rational Review will publish, unedited, the submissions of libertarian presidential candidates. For more information, or for assistance, contact us at info@rationalreview.com.