Voting by Party

In my local congressional race there was a Libertarian candidate. I have a lot of sympathy for Libertarians and their platform. I tend to vote for them if I don't have a good reason to like or support the Republican. Although some of that is my desire to see a greater number of parties involved in elections and government.

It can be hard at times to get good feel on the views of specific Libertarian candidates. The Libertarian in my local congressional race  was quoted in the League of Women Voters guide as wanting to repeal the 14^th Amendment. This is not a stance or course of action that I am willing to support.

It is not surprising to me that there are people, or even a large number of people, in a marginal movement that I disagree with. It is the nature of marginal movements to tolerate a greater variety of positions and ideologies. Since most of people involved with the movement will not have the chance to implement them these disparities have much less real significance than if the party was in a position to get its candidates elected.

Republican candidates also tend to take positions I disagree with. McCain for example deeply offend my sensibilities and values with McCain–Feingold as a result I refused to vote for him in the last presidential election. While my one vote wouldn't have changed the election, especially since I live in Texas, I now find that, rather than standing on principle, I wish I had chosen the lesser evil for the sake of Supreme Court nominees if nothing else. It is maddening to have to support those you distrust and disagree with because they are members of a party less likely to harm this country.

I would dearly love to see election reform. I would primarily like to see two reforms: first return the election of Senators to the states legislatures with a provision for their recall at the discretion of the legislature, second I would like to see Representatives elected in a single pool transferable voting system with no minimum threshold either by state or nationally. I think that would better represent the views and positions of the people and the states as well as stop the seesaw swings of political control.