I just realized that the "lesser evil" thing bothers me a little bit
in certain cases. Why? It's seeing the glass as half empty. If we used
the ultimate hypothetical extremes of politics as markers, with the
people running Oceania in George Orwell's "1984" at one end of the
scale, and libertarian versions of people like Buddha or Jesus of
Nazareth at the other, who is to say which side of the median Gavin
Newsom and Matt Gonzalez would come down on? Wouldn't it be roughly
accurate to say they are in the middle? Perhaps even on our side of the
scale?
If the latter, would it be fairer to speak of them in terms of the
"greater of two goods" rather than the "lesser of two evils?" Sure
Newsom and Gonzalez look bad compared to the Ron Pauls and Mike Dennys
of the world, but they look pretty good compared to the Charles
Schumers and Slobodan Milosevics. Taking this question to the gay
marriage issue, I'd be even more inclined to say that AB205 is good not
evil, and getting government entirely out of marriage would be an even
greater good.
Defining people in terms of how evil they are is a useful frame of
reference when explaining why people should vote Libertarian rather
than Republican or Democrat. But it becomes counter-productive when
trying to explain to people why they should vote at all. If all the
people in SF who hold libertarian views and don't vote at all voted
Libertarian, the city would probably be much better off. It might do
them (and some of us) good to think about choosing the "greater good"
rather than the "lesser evil."
Half full, dammit!
<<< Starchild >>>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1If you care, and you want to
effect your situation for the better, than you should vote for the
lesser of two evils.... only if the situation is a binary choice. Starchild and Rob's
debate
with Jeff Chan is along similar lines: AB205 is a lesser evil than
discrimination against gays.In a multi-candidate race, voting for the Libertarian sends a message
that
is pro-liberty. In a two-candidate race, voting for the less noxious
choice sends a message that you prefer the one over the other.Unfortunately, Michael Edelstein tried to get us another option on the
run-off four years ago, and lost the court case, even with Richard
Winger's
capable assistance.~Chris
- --
"Hollywood's often tried to mix/Show business with politics/From Helen
Gahagan/To... Ronald Reagan?" - Tom Lehrer, "George Murphy", 1965
Freelance text nerd: <URL: http://crism.maden.org/ >
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