Voticons
With the impending election coming there is much talk about the selection of candidates. In some races you think of the phrase "choosing the lesser of two evils." A phrase I really don't like. Even in cases where you a choosing between two candidates that might have views you don't like; you are really choosing to limit evil and are not choosing evil but a good.
Some have spoken of sending a message by sitting out the election or voting third party instead. Well to be sarcastic - all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to vote third party or to sit out the election. Kevin Miller had a very good post on this subject today. If because people sit out and a Supreme Court nominee that could overturn Roe v. Wade doesn't make it through the process - that will really send a message.
Unfortunately it is rarely the case that you pull the lever on a candidate and think wow this person is the perfect moral candidate. Unfortunately in are present system when you vote for someone there is no really good public way to mark your displeasure or that you are voting for them with reservations.
I do have a solution though to this problem. When you read message boards and some blogs you can see the use of emoticons for people to be able to mark the related emotion to what they are saying.
With the advent of so many LCD touch screens in the voting booth just how hard would it be to able to add emoticons with each of your votes? When the emoticons are tabulated politicians would see exactly what you really think of them. Right now a vote appears to them to be an 100 percent vote of approval. It would be great for their humility to get a 80 percent "yawning" and a 10 percent "grossed out' along with other ratings.
Though the standard emoticons are really not expressive enough. I suggest a new category for voting machines - Voticons. Here are some possible Voticons.
Holding my nose while voting for you
You were the lesser of two devils
After voting for you I think I am gonna spew
I am embarrassed to have voted for you but you sucked less than the other person.
I voted pro-life, please don't disappoint me
Used for politicians like Sen McCain where you are "split" between liking him one day and hating him the next.
Remember this is my wallet not yours, please vote accordingly.
Now in some situations I guess you could actually use one of the normal smiley emoticons, for example if you actually get to vote for someone like Sen. Sam Brownback
And here is one last one:
"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." G.K. Chesterton
Known as 
This time of year I like to lament loudly that we don't have a political system that was first described to me by a buddy of mine from my slightly more youthful days:
Whomever is elected gets absolute power for ten years. At the end, we have another election, to hang him or not.
Love this post. And the comment above. :-)
> "Well to be sarcastic - all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to vote third party or to sit out the election."
Here is some alternative sarcasm - all is takes for the major parties to keep fielding poor candidates who disregard their base when it suits them is for good men to consider third parties a wast.
It is this odd notion that third parties are a wast that enables the major parties to continue alienating those who normally support them. A third party candidate does not need to win to make a difference. If he gets a significant number of votes, the major party that was used to getting those votes might ask themselves why they didn't this time. That could lead to better candidates from the major party next election.
It is more of a wast to vote for a major party candidate who does not represent your values because he is the lesser of two evils (or however you want to look at it). Your vote says you approve of a candidate, period. There is no nuance, no way for the party to know you don't really like that candidate. So, they will just another candidate you don't like again next term.
Here's a compromise: sit out the Congressional election to send a message but vote GOP for the Senate to fight for confirmation of justices that might overturn Roe v. Wade.
Gotta agree with trm above about third parties. I'm lucky enough to have a good conservative GOP candidate for Congress. Neither of my terrible Illinois senators are up for re-election this year. But in the governor's race, I'm faced with a bad Democrat and a worse Republican. In that race, I will vote third-party/write-in to send the message that the GOP will not win without running conservative candidates.
Then, later in the week, it'll be time to start checking out conservative candidates to oppose Richard Durbin for re-election in '08.
I am a Kansan and I get to vote for Sam Brownback. Is their a voticon that is nothing but a huge grin?
Under the Mercy,
Matthew S
Hilarious post!
I completely agree with the above comment about the Illinois governor's race. We moved back to our home state Illinois just a few months ago, and I have been itching for the chance to vote against the incumbent Communist (well, technically he's a Democrat) candidate, Rod Blagojevich (who we affectionately refer to as "Slobodan" Blagojevich). But from what little I have been able to find out about the Republican candidate (Judy Topinka) on life issues, it doesn't appear that she is any better. The only third party candidate on the ballot is from the Green Party, and it appears that he isn't pro-life either! So I'm faced with either choosing the person who is just slightly the lesser of the two (or three) evils, or writing in the candidate from the Constitution Party. Ugh!!!
At least our candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives is pretty solidly pro-life, and in fact BOTH of our candidates for the state assembly appear to be strongly pro-life. So I guess it's not all bad.
Quote: "Here's a compromise: sit out the Congressional election to send a message but vote GOP for the Senate to fight for confirmation of justices that might overturn Roe v. Wade."
I'm sorry, but I have to go with a certain radio talk show host on this one, and say that I don't see the point of sitting out the election (or part of the election). This strategy seems to assume that we can lose now in order to win later, but in practice, I'm not convinced that that actually works.
Of course if my two candidates for the U.S. House looked like the two candidates for Illinois governor, then maybe I would sit out that race, simply because I wouldn't see much discernable advantage of voting for either one over the other.
I really like those voticons!
As bad as the candidates can be, I don't have the option of sitting out an election. I would be voted out of the family. My maternal grandfather drilled it into me that "Voting is a PRIVILEGE!" (Yes, I know it's my right as a citizen, but his father was denied citizenship for a long time because of his illiteracy. And his mother, a native-born American, had to wait for suffrage. So he was terribly aware that many people have no say in their political environment.)
My father is a diehard Republican, but my mother and I have occasionally voted third party. If nothing else, we like to keep the Green Party, the Constitution Party, etc. on the ballot. (Except the Socialist Workers. Blech!)
Re: the Voticons:
ROTFLMAO.
Want to mention I read (& heard) about this post on the latest Christus Vincit Anywhere! podcast (#54):
http://www.christusvincit.com/
& want to pass along the news that show host & fellow B-Team blogger Brian Michael Page spent last night in the ER:
http://rhapsodyenbleuclair.blogspot.com/2006/11/episode-54.html
& to please remember him & his family in your prayers!
Don't sit out the election to voice dissatisfaction. If you do that, you get lumped in with all the people who didn't vote because of apathy. Instead, vote- for yourself. It's the next best thing to voting "None of the Above".
Dang Dano! Why I didn't think of that (vote - for yourself) is beyond me! (LMAO) After all, I have to be the least of three evils in some race now, eh? hehehehe
BMP
This was wonderful. I read it just after I did my "civic duty" and the Chesterton quote was exactly the way I felt when I posted my balot but was too timid to put into words.
Thanks Jeff for being the voice for we timid folks.