The Debate, Marxism, and the Folly of Third Party Voting (or, the Tyranny of Majoritarian Mathematics)

Senator McCain was clearly more aggressively on the attack last night, but by leaving out Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he's left out one of the strongest reasons why not to vote for Barack Obama.

Bill Ayers? Unrepentant "washed up" domestic terrorist, yes, but the Weather Underground was a Marxist/left-wing organization.

ACORN? Yes, they're involved with voter registration fraud, but at their heart, they're a Marxist/left-wing organization trying to radicalize students (under the education "reform" arm) and agitate for left wing causes.

Rev. Jeremiah Wright? The context for "America's chickens have come home to roost" and "G-D America" is his Black Liberation Theology - which could just as easily be described as Urban American Marxism.

It's not that Barack Obama has individual one-time relationships with any of these people; it's that he has had fifteen-to-twenty-year relationships with all of them, concurrently. That paints a picture of a radical, Marxist leaning candidate, running for office as a Democrat.

And it's his answer to Joe the Plumber ("Spread the Wealth") that provides the meat of the charge - that Barack Obama the Marxist is a terrible choice for the country at any time, but especially in a time of economic difficulty and two wars.

Which brings me to my friends trying to get me to vote for the Constitution Party or the Libertarian Party (you know who you are).

A vote for Chuck Baldwin is a pro-choice, anti-family vote - not because Baldwin is pro-choice (he clearly isn't) but because in voting for someone with no chance of getting elected, you are allowing Barack Obama to become President - the most radically pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda candidate in our nation's history. A vote for Chuck Baldwin is a vote for Barack Obama. Please think about that before you vote. If nothing else - check out Obama's answer on Roe v. Wade last night. Roe was a constitutional disaster - and Obama thinks it was correctly decided. That alone should send shudders...

For my Libertarian friends, a vote for Bob Barr is a pro-Big Government vote - not because Barr's Big Government (he clearly isn't), but becuase in voting for someone with no chance of getting elected, you are allowing Barack Obama to become President - the most liberal, big spender in the Senate, voting against the taxpayers (either for tax increases or against tax cuts) 94 times in his short stint in the Senate. A vote for Bob Barr is a vote for Barack Obama. Please think about that before you vote.

Now, I give you these two prior paragraphs knowing that voting for a Third Party in America is an inherently irrational thing to do in a winner-take-all Electoral College sort of way. Not to get into the weeds of "rational voter theory", but as we get closer to the election, what tends to happen amongst rational voters is that they see which of the two biggest candidates can win, and choose which one they want, knowing that they want their vote to count and matter (and voting for third place usually means knowing beforehand that you aren't going to win.)

Clearly, there have been the rare exception to the rule - Independent Senators in Vermont and Connecticut come to mind. But, as a rule, and especially at the Presidential level, voting third party actually damages your cause in the long term. Rather than the two possible things you hope to do (either pull your former party in the direction you wish it was going - in this case Republicans to the right - socially or fiscally; or establish a new force in politics), what tends to happen is the opposite. By pulling your forces away from the party you used to belong to, you ensure it's electoral defeat - and get all the blame. The party in question then is free to become less like you (since you are no longer there to influence it) and your third party is also unlikely to succeed (since no new party has won a Presidential Election since Abraham Lincoln in 1860 - the first Republican President. The last President to get elected without being a Republican or a Democrat was Zachary Taylor in 1848. He was a Whig. I digress...)

My point, conservative friends, is that we have but one real, working choice to vote for President - like him or not, it's Senator John McCain.

I'm voting for McCain with my eyes open - I know the day after he gets elected that I'll be working against his policies on global warming, immigration, and probably a few other things as well. But I also know that Barack Obama is the most left-wing, Marxist major party candidate in our nation's history. And for that reason, (and for others), my car sports a McCain/Palin sticker, and I'll be voting for them.

I hope you will, too.

Debate thoughts

Since Leroy apparently missed his deadline last night, I'll give you my thoughts on the Presidential debate...

Clearly, John McCain won the night, and I would expect a small bounce out of this debate, just enough to put the poll numbers in the margins. His idea to have Treasury buy up bad mortgages and renegotiate them would have cost much less than the bailout passed last week - I only wish this one had come up sooner.

But it was his attacks on the record and rhetoric of Barack Obama that defined the night, and will define this campaign in the 4 weeks ahead. McCain pounded Obama's record and his proposals, and painted the picture of a tax-and-spend liberal who will say anything to get elected while doing the opposite in power. His line of attack connecting the dots between Obama and the Freddie/Fannie mess is a powerful one, and one that let's people know Obama's culpability in the housing and financial mess. His mention of Obama's past campaign promise to cut taxes for the middle class, when he never voted for a single tax cut while in the Senate cut to Obama's credibility.

McCain did this while never mentioning the connections with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, which we now know to have been much deeper than previously reported, including $50 million in taxpayer moneys that Obama funneled to Ayers in the 1990s. McCain never mentioned the anti-American rantings of Obama cronies Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Father Michael Flegler. Clearly Obama expected those (more personal) attacks, and came out swinging - but in the wrong direction. Instead, McCain's attacks on Obama's record and his proposals left Obama on the wrong footing, answering the wrong questions while McCain connected with the audience in the room by answering their questions directly - and by extension connecting with voters across the country.

While Tom Brokaw was, in a word, awful, the town hall format still gave McCain a chance to shine, and his command of the facts (and Obama's record) gave him the clear win tonight. That should even things up with 4 weeks to go. (Note: The best moderator so far has still been Rev. Rick Warren... someone alert the MSM - they need new blood.)

Funny moment of the night: Tom Brokaw asking John McCain who his Treasury Secretary would be, and McCain answering "Not you, Tom."

Hang on, folks, it's going to be a crazy last month...

Presidential Debate thoughts

McCain on points... no Knockout blows in Round 1.

If you want to know how I spent my evening, The State has the roundup. Don't miss the video...

How far to the right did Barack Obama shift before last night's debate? All of a sudden, he's trying to sound like a neocon - giving Ukraine and Georgia NATO membership, calling Iran a terror sponsor, and calling Israel our staunchest ally. If he had come out like that in the Dem debates, we would've been watching someone else on stage last night. All part of the show, I suppose...

McCain did a better job of defining his opponent than Obama did last night. Obama tried to make this the "Bush/McCain" term, and did OK doing it. McCain solidly (and repeatedly) made the point that Obama is too dangerously naive to be President.

There was one clear loser in this debate: Jim Lehrer. I kept expecting him to handout boxing gloves or brass knuckles while trying to get the two to attack each other. After last night, I wouldn't be surprised if PBS got it's federal funding eliminated to help pay for the bailout package...

Every debate moderator has to live up to the memory of Tim Russert (and the surprisingly solid forum performance of Pastor Rick Warren). Lehrer fell far short of those considerations last night.