Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Divided government

The Nightly Build...

Other Options for Nobama Voters

Trey Garrison is a conservative Republican who is embarrassed to admit same, a political species that is not all that rare this election. But he spends little time on self analysis and practically ignores John McCain altogether, training all his criticism on Barack Obama. So, what's a Nobama like Garrison to do, when you want to see Obama fail but don't want to be seen supporting McCain? You can call for divided government in an attempt to make your anti-Obama vote sound principled and not just negative. Or you can mention the Libertarian candidate, always a safe choice because he has no chance of winning. Finally, there's the option of not voting at all. Garrison covers all three in his blog posts today.

Garrison approvingly links to an essay titled, "You Choose, You Lose: What happens when the two evils are pretty much equal?" No need to read further. If you guess that an essay that starts by presuming Democrats and Republicans are both "evil" probably has an author with an axe to grind, you'd be right. Author Jacob Sullum is at least aboveboard, coming right out and telling us he intends to vote for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr. Neither Sullum nor Garrison defend Barr as much as condemn McCain and Obama. That leads Garrison to his ultimate protest, taking his ball and going home and not voting at all. Garrison nods approvingly at Brian Doherty, the author of another essay that suggests that "the whole game of majority-rule ... is inherently illegitimate."

Sometimes I think Garrison is putting us on, writing self satire. In this case, the giveaway might be the oxymoronic name of the online magazine Garrison links to: Reason.

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