Reply #116: "The point of voting is not to win . . ." [View All]

Okay, I would have thought this was obvious, but back to basics.

This country is a representative democracy. The way democracy works here is not by direct citizen involvement but by the election of representatives, to the legislative and executive branches and in some states the judicial branch also. This means that candidates run for election, citizens vote on them, and that's how citizens get their say in the way government is run.

The reason we have elections is to decide who will represent the people in the various government offices. People vote, the votes get counted, the winner takes office (with a notable exception in 2000, but oh well). Once the votes are counted and the victor determined, the votes do not mean diddley squat. They have no other purpose whatsoever.

Now, the funny thing is, it is utterly ridiculous to expect a complete and perfect ideological match between any given voter and any given candidate for national office. Tens of millions of people will cast a vote for President, for example - it is futile to expect any of them to totally agree with the candidate of their choice. Therefore, the question becomes, which candidate best represents my views.

Except that the ability to win has to factor in, because the only way votes matter is in determining the winner. There is no prize for second place, no honorable mention, not in U.S. politics. This is why we have political parties. Coalitions of people who agree or somewhat nearly agree on certain key issues and respectfully disagree on others organize to get candidates more-or-less acceptable to their views elected. Now this more-or-less thing is crucial, because as noted before, nobody can reasonably expect complete agreement with the chosen candidate. Also, the farther you are out to the left or right of the political spectrum, the less agreement you are likely to find.

The temptation then becomes to form splinter factions. This is useless because they don't get their candidates into office. Since the point of politics is to determine who runs the government and makes the decisions, voting for a candidate who can't win is pointless. One may talk about "change" or "making a difference," but you can't change a thing or make a difference of any kind unless you can get your candidates into office.

So whatever intent you have in voting for a splinter candidate, it's a futile intent. You might as well write in your own name, or stay home, for all the difference it makes.