For a libertarian, or anyone who subscribes to a “radical” political ideology, elections present a difficult choice, even beyond the typical decision between Democratic and Republican candidates. Is it better to vote for an ideal third-party candidate — if there is one — and risk, possibly ensure, the notion that one’s vote will come to nothing, or to compromise and vote for the lesser evil out of the two primary nominees? Or not to vote at all?
Deciding who is “the lesser evil” isn’t easy, either, especially in an election as ambiguous and image-oriented as this one has been. In a contest between a young, untested media superstar and a career politician who courts the press and has been building his image as a supposed “maverick” for decades, how does one decide who will actually fulfill his promises and support one’s values?
It’s a question everyone should be asking himself/herself — not just Libertarians. In an age of 24-hour mass media, expert spin-controllers and poorly secured, paperless voting machines, we may not know nearly as much as we think about the candidates, the electoral process or who decides what information reaches us.
On the other hand, the blurred lines in this election aren’t all bad. Of all that the last eight years has taught us, one of the most critical is that politics founded on partisanship and polarization serves no one but the party or politician most skilled at manipulation. An election season that foregrounds the need to rewrite or erase ideological lines may be exactly what we need to leave behind the divisive prefab politics of the Bush era.
This is not to imply that either candidate is the “purple” politician who can appeal to everyone. Senators McCain and Obama are both establishment candidates, with little divergence from their parties’ platforms.
But their attempts to portray themselves as figures who transgress normal political roles have opened a space in the national dialogue for the real “purple candidates” to step up, show their true colors and take back their country: the American people. Hopefully, they will seize their opportunity.
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