If you are an American then Tuesday, November 6th is a big day for you. In fact, it’s a big day for all of us in this country.
There is a presidential election and there is a lot at stake in this election cycle, and in most states you have four people to choose from.
That’s right, there are four people to choose from.
You Have Many Presidential Candidates
Did you know there is a candidate who believes that a college education is a RIGHT and that college should be free for anyone who wants to attend? That would be Green Party candidate Jill Stein (although I’m not sure where all this money would come from).
Did you know there is a candidate who believes that we should completely abolish the IRS and wants to allow you to keep every dollar in your paycheck (and pay one national sales tax as outlined at the Fair Tax website)? That would be Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.
Did you know there are two candidates who support the PATRIOT act, supported the Wall Street Bailouts, and believe the president should have to power to assassinate US citizens abroad if they are only SUSPECTED terrorists? Those would be Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Inform Yourself Before You Vote
There have been five televised presidential debates this year. Three between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, one between Paul Ryan and Joe Biden, and another between Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Rocky Anderson (Justice) and Virgil Goode (Constitution).
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama were invited to participate in the Free and Equal debate so Americans could compare all the candidates amongst each other, but neither felt it was important enough to show up.
All five of these debates are archived on Youtube and it just takes a quick search to find them.
There is another debate at 9pm ET tonight (November 5th) between Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, and if you haven’t done your research then I strongly recommend watching this final debate. You can watch it at the Free and Equal website.
Once You’re Informed then GO VOTE!
Our sixth president John Quincy Adams once said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”
I’ve been doing research on candidates for a long time and I already voted early. I voted for Gary Johnson because I agree with him more than I agree with any of the other candidates.
No matter who you think would be the best president for our country, it is important that all informed persons go vote. The next president will impact the state of the economy, how much you’ll pay in taxes, and generally how much the federal government is going to involve themselves in your life.
Readers: Are you voting this year? How do you feel about this year’s slate of candidates?
Kevin McKee is an entrepreneur, IT guru, and personal finance leader. In addition to his writing, Kevin is the head of IT at Buildingstars, Co-Founder of Padmission, and organizer of Laravel STL. He is also the creator of www.contributetoopensource.com. When he’s not working, Kevin enjoys podcasting about movies and spending time with his wife and four children.
Also voted early, also for Gary Johnson. Hopefully he’ll be able to poll 5% and receive federally distributed public funding for 2016.
www.isidewith.com is a pretty helpful resource if you don’t know who to vote for.
Yep, I posted about iSideWith a few weeks back. Here is the post: https://www.thousandaire.com/only-idiots-think-votes-are-wasted/
It’s a great way to figure out who you really agree with.
I already voted in early voting down here in Florida. I believe everyone should go vote and make an INFORMED decision. I don’t care who people vote for but they need to go vote if they are legally allowed.
Congratulations on living in Florida. Your vote actually matters!
Great post Kevin. I hate that 90% of our population only thinks that there are two candidates. There are more choices people! I will be voting tomorrow morning as soon as I wake up (probably around 9am) and am still not sure who I am going to be voting for. I am leaning towards Gary Johnson. I’ll have to watch that last debate tonight and see how it goes.
I’ll be interested to see what they talk about in the last debate as well. Good luck getting to the polls! Hopefully the lines aren’t too long and you can speed through them!
Here’s what’s in store for those who oppose Obama:
“After we win this election, it’s our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don’t forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won’t be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.”
— Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama
In my opinion both the Democratic and Republican parties feel this way, which you can see in the Republican party by how they shut out the liberty supporters.
I’m fine with being on the outside of those two parties until one of them start to align their values more with my own.
I may be in the minority here, but I believe that for all intents and purposes we’ve got a two party system. Yes, there other parties and we have more than two choices, but in our current environment there isn’t any way any of those third parties are going to get elected to a major national office like the presidency. It’s just not going to happen. They don’t have the money, the backing or the clout to make it happen.Because of that I prefer to try and work within the system that we’ve currently got -whether good or bad – and vote for the candidate that most reflects my own values – that actually might have a chance to win. I want to make sure that the candidate that is furthest from my own values doesn’t win.. From there I hope to effect change from within that party, hoping to move it more towards my beliefs incrementally.For that reason I’m voting for Mitt Romney, because I believe he stands a better chance of helping to create a better pro-business environment where more jobs can be created, and hopefully where Obamacare can be reversed, and better health care options that aren’t going to reduce the quality of care and increase cost can be implemented.
A third party will never be able to win if people don’t vote for it. Remember the Whig party? What about the Federalist party? The fact is we have had political parties rise to prominence and fall from prominence over the years. We’ve had parties change. You won’t get something new by voting for the same stuff. If you think the last 20 years have overall been good then a Republican or Democrat is probably the right choice for you. If you think you we can do better as a country then a third party might be the best option.
We may have had other parties be prominent in the distant past, but no time in recent history. Did you know a Republican or Democrat has been elected president in every single presidential election since 1852? The last time a third party won was in 1860, and it was the recently started abolitionist party – the Republicans. They took over for the previously powerful Whig party. Even without that example the best a third party has been able to do is probably Ross Perot with 18.6% of the vote in 1992, 20 years ago.So yes, parties do come in and out of favor. But since the last 3rd party win was 152 years ago, it doesn’t give very good odds that this year will be different. For me, I just feel it makes more sense to vote for one of the major parties that have a chance to get elected, and work from within to make those positive changes for smaller government/etc that we want to see.
If you lived in a contested state and thought your vote might impact the election, would that change your outlook? Knowing that Gary Johnson won’t get elected, would you try and choose the lesser of the two evils and vote for the one you think would be a less bad leader for America?
If I lived in a contested state then I would be even more happy to vote for Gary Johnson. I want people to know that I have voted Republican in the past and I can’t do it anymore because I’ve realized they don’t support small enough government. I wish my vote for Gary Johnson tipped the election because then the Republican party might get serious about adopting platforms that me and the millions of liberty voters support.
Republicans have lost my vote because they are too similar to Democrats and until the move closer to fiscal conservatism and smaller government then I won’t vote for a Republican again no matter where I live.
Kevin,
All good points. I admire your passion and devotion to Gary Johnson. The two-party system in the U.S. has only hardened. It’s been awhile since we’ve had a third-party nudge its way into a national debate (Ross Perot). I thought maybe the Tea Party or even the Occupy Movement had a chance to carve out a third-party niche.
I’d like to see it happen in my lifetime. But when I vote, I basically vote so I can sleep at night. And I hope that the rest of the country is well-informed.
-Christian L. @ Smart Military Money