Does Your Vote Count?

We are about to go full bore into the election, The the Democratic Convention, Barack annonuncing a running mate then McCain announcing a running mate then the republican conventiion and we wll pretty much be bombarded with it till election day in November.

But I have been doing some general investingating and what I have found is that a very surprising small number of voters actually decide the election.

As far back as data goes for these things the parties are pretty evenly split.  About 40% of those who vote are going to vote Republican no matter who the Republicans offer up. These are the core of the Republican Party, they include people who think we would be better off in a theocracy, aka the religious right, fascists, fiscal conservatives and people who think the Republicans represent less government and fewer taxes (they dont)

Then you have the core Democrats, 40% to be exact they will vote Democrat no matter who the Democrats put up.  These are your people who basically think the government should take care of us from cradle to grave, black people, pornographers and people who aren’t very big on individual  responsibility.

Never underestimate stupid people in large numbers huh?…And I mean BOTH these groups.

So that, y’all who had at least government schooling, leaves 20%.  These are the “undecided” or “independent” voters you hear so much about. That 20% will generally split within 5 % of the middle. So whoever wins, particularly in key states with a lot of electoral votes in play, wins because of these middle ground voters.  Given that you have two big states that are pretty much a lock for Democrats, California and New York and the Republicans have Texas and lots of little states in the breadbasket that leaves some very key states that could go either way, like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia these are the commonly called “battleground states” and campaigning is fierce there.  But they candidates aren’t playing to their parties there, they are playing to the middle, to that 20% that will split along a statistically narrow margin to determine who will be president.

So do some votes count more than others?  Oh ya.  If yer a Republican in New York or California your vote isnt going to mean much as it stands right now, ditto if yer a Democrat in Texas or Georgia.

But if you live in Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania your vote  means a lot.

As most of you know I am a Libertarian, and I will vote Libertarian, I know Bob Barr, having personally met him, and while he wouldn’t be my first choice for president he is light years ahead of the two dog turds that the Republicans and the Democrats have shat out for consideration.

Will my vote count? Yes it does, at least to me, and sometimes, as in the case of Ross Perot (yes i know he wasn’t Libertarian) it determines the outcome of an election.  The grand idea, of course is that the party can exert enough influence to pull both the Republicans and the Democrats to more Libertarian ideology.

So what I am saying here is  that no matter who you are your vote counts and yes some count more than others, but bottom line is get yer ass out there and vote. Men and Women died so that you would have this ability, the least you can do is drag yer ass away from Oprah or Jerry Springer or mikesouth.com long enough to do it.

I leave you with my philosophy as stated by Ken Schoolland

The Philosophy of Liberty

The philosophy is based on the principle of self-ownership.

You own your life.

To deny this is to imply that another person has a higher claim on your life than you
have. No other person, or group of persons, owns your life nor do you own the lives
of others.

You exist in time: future, present, and past. This is manifest in life, liberty, and
the product of your life and liberty. The exercise of choices over life and liberty is
your prosperity. To lose your life is to lose your future. To lose your liberty is to lose
your present. And to lose the product of your life and liberty is to lose the portion of
your past that produced it.

A product of your life and liberty is your property. Property is the fruit of your
labor, the product of your time, energy, and talents. It is that part of nature that you
turn to valuable use. And it is the property of others that is given to you by voluntary
exchange and mutual consent. Two people who exchange property voluntarily are
both better off or they wouldn’t do it. Only they may rightfully make that decision for
themselves.

At times some people use force or fraud to take from others without willful,
voluntary consent. Normally, the initiation of force to take life is murder, to take
liberty is slavery, and to take property is theft. It is the same whether these actions are
done by one person acting alone, by the many acting against a few, or even by
officials with[in government].

You have the right to protect your own life, liberty, and justly acquired property
from the forceful aggression of others. So you may rightfully ask others to help
protect you. But you do not have a right to initiate force against the life, liberty, or
property of others. Thus, you have no right to designate some person to initiate force
against others on your behalf.

You have a right to seek leaders for yourself, but you have no right to impose
rulers on others. No matter how officials are selected, they are only human beings and
they have no rights or claims that are higher than those of any other human beings.
Regardless of the imaginative labels for their behavior or the numbers of people
encouraging them, officials have no right to murder, to enslave, or to steal. You
cannot give them any rights that you do not have yourself.

Since you own your life, you are responsible for your life. You do not rent your
life from others who demand your obedience. Nor are you a slave to others who
demand your sacrifice. You choose your own goals based on your own values.
Success and failure are both the necessary incentives to learn and to grow. Your
action on behalf of others, or their action on behalf of you, is only virtuous when it is
derived from voluntary, mutual consent. For virtue can only exist when there is free
choice.

This is the basis of a truly free society. It is not only the most practical and
humanitarian foundation for human action, it is also the most ethical.

Problems that arise from the initiation of force by government have a solution.
The solution is for people of the world to stop asking officials to initiate force on their
behalf. Evil does not arise only from evil people, but also from good people who
tolerate the initiation of force as a means to their own ends. In this manner, good
people have empowered evil throughout history.

Having confidence in a free society is to focus on the process of discovery in the
marketplace of values rather than to focus on some imposed vision or goal. Using
governmental force to impose a vision on others is intellectual sloth and typically
results in unintended, perverse consequences. Achieving the free society requires
courage to think, to talk, and to act—especially when it is easier to do nothing.