There was a time when I was cowed into voting for Bipartisans on short-term political considerations, and after that a time when I voted for them where there was no better alternative. But I stopped voting for Bipartisans altogether when the US Senate refused to conduct a genuine trial of Bill Clinton for his mafioso-like acts. Not one Senator demanded a genuine trial, so far as I know, and not one bothered to examine the evidence. Especially given that the Clinton administration was by far the most corrupt administration in US history, I cannot forgive this breach of fiduciary duty by both major parties, and am unlikely ever to make an exception, for any candidate. Living in MA, where Republicans raise taxes and spending, then lie about it, where they are just as enthusiastic as Democrats in dividing taxed spoils, and where a vote for Bush would be wasted even if I were tempted to cast one, I have the luxury of not worrying about whether I bear any responsibility for the short-term results of a single election.
John Kerry is a partially-self-confessed war criminal with a record of falsifying reports, including some responsible for at least some of his medals and some that would have exposed him to review if not censure or court-martial; failing to address concerns with his superiors while claiming to do so; and misrepresenting his own acts of murderousness and malice as those of the military in general. He is known for his do-you-know-who-I-am attempts to secure advantage over others and for his abuse of both living and dead naval comrades for political advantage. His answer, regarding the women in his family, to a question at the third Bush-Kerry pseudo-debate bickerfest gave the impression, consistent with the above, that his love for his wife stretches at least as wide as her pocketbook.
In addition to the Clinton whitewash, the Democratic Party has repeatedly engaged in anti-civic behavior, and its two recent Presidents, in treason (Carter in asking the Soviets to help him get re-elected, Clinton in transferring ballistic-missile technology to Communist China in exchange for campaign cash). In encouraging fraudulent voter registration, in suppressing the appointment of qualified judges, and, in Massachusetts, refusing to perform their Constitutional duty to vote on voter-initiated amendments, the Democrats have abandoned all pretense of respect for democracy.
Bush, only slightly more intelligent than Kerry, at least, in stark contrast, appears to be a decent individual. But the errors that Hospers glosses over are not merely tactical ones, and when things such as the pretense of airport security involved in disarming passengers of even pins; the treatment of the intransigent, war-bent, biggest-mass-murdering leaders of China as if friendship were possible; and the admission of intelligence failures in Iraq before it can have been learned conclusively in what the failures, if any, lay, are added, the picture that emerges is one not merely of prodigal extravagance, but of pretense, or, more likely, delusion. In areas as diverse as campaign finance reform and failing to control the borders, Bush seems to be attempting to collapse the death of the Roman Republic and the fall of its successor Empire into a single administration.
Republicans, while not stooping anywhere as low as the Democrats, are nevertheless a party of ever-bigger government, enthusiastically supporting the thoroughly mindless and extremely evil Drug Hunts, pork-barrel spending, anti-sovereignty-and-pseudo-free-trade NAFTA, and on and on ad nihilum.
An anti-Bipartisan vote isn't merely the making of a short-term statement, and cannot be regarded as advertising in the corrupted news environment where election results are distorted. But such a vote does constitute the withholding of consent from the destroyers of this country; at least gives those who actively work to build an anti-tyranny movement data to make that work more effective; and helps restore the multiparty system, effectively destroyed during the 20th century, that renders democracy more fluid, thus helping to make good change possible in the long run.
The election of Kerry would not put the Democrats in power, without control of Congress. Thus, not only would a vote for Bush be less useful than Hospers states, but a non-Bipartisan vote, being relatively more useful and meaningful than stated, is at least worth weighing.
I intend to hold my nose and vote for the appeasenik apologist and pseudo-constitutionalist Badnarek, rather than casting a blank. I urge others to at least consider doing the same.
T. David Hudson