I have real problems with the "you can't complain" mantra. If it were not for third party candidates, I may have decided to not vote in this election since neither of the two major candidates really represent me. Well, what if Badnarik didn't make it onto the ballot in my state? Am I supposed to put my voice behind someone I don't agree with just so I have the "right to complain?" But then, what if that person wins - this person I didn't want to vote for in the first place but did anyway since I was not given an option to vote for anyone I liked but wanted to have the right to complain? If he wins, then I can't complain because I voted for him. But I wouldn't have voted for him - or at all for the matter - if not for the fact that I had to vote in order to complain.
Sorry, I don't buy it. If you don't like either candidate and there are no other options, or no other options that you're aware of at least, then don't vote, and you have every right to complain. Saying otherwise just forces people to half-heartedly put their support behind one of the two major candidates, enforcing the duopoloy they have on government.
I seriously wonder if there is this concept in other democracies. I really doubt it to be honest. This idea that voting for SOMETHING in a democracy is more important than voting for what you believe in is *extremely* detrimental to democracy IMO. I will not vote for Bush "just so I can complain" when I dislike Bush's policies. I will not vote for Kerry "just so I can complain" when I dislike Kerry's policies. If no one else is on the ballot in my state, or I am not aware of the other candidates (thanks to the two major parties control of the media), then what do you expect me to do? If I vote for Bush and he wins, since I'm supposed to vote first and respect my ideals later apparently, then I "can't complain" about his foreign policy. If I vote for Kerry and he wins, despite that he does not match my ideals either, then I "can't complain" about his economic policy (not that Bush's is better mind you
). So, tell me, what is someone who is unable to vote for or unaware of the third party candidates supposed to do when they disagree with both major candidates?
Badnarik and Cobb (let alone any of the other third party candidates) have gotten almost no media attention. Badnarik and Cobb were arrested yesterday for protesting not being allowed into the debates, yet it wasn't on the news anywhere (besides some obscure locations on the internet) that two PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES were arrested for civil disobedience. The only stations that the major third party candidates have been on are PBS and C-Span, and only sparingly. If I'm a person working 50 hours a week with a family, or a student at school full time who also works part time on top of it, how am I supposed to know about these third party candidates when they're basically not on TV, not in the newspapers, and not anywhere else but the internet since that's the only place they can freely express their message? What if I'm not internet savvy and, like many people, just use it to check my e-mail and use google? What then? How am I supposed to educate myself beyond the two major candidates whom I don't agree with while at the same time doing all my schoolwork, working at my job, or what have you. Oh, and finally, what if I'm like most people and since people have told me over and over that a vote for a third party is a wasted vote I don't even consider it?
Where are we now, society has told me if I vote 3rd party it's a waste, and that's if they're even on the ballot in my state, and I disagree with both major candidates. But society has also told me that not voting makes me not able to complain, so I guess I'm supposed to go vote for one of the two major candidates whom I disagree with, just so I can complain.....but only if that person loses.....even though I didn't want them to win.
Are you confused yet? Good. Because it doesn't make sense. At all.
If you don't like your options, don't vote. And complain all you want. And don't tell me that you can just hand in an empty ballot. Tell that to the uneducated masses (uneducated regarding voting and politics at least) who are never told that by the two parties since they want their vote. People have no idea that handing in an empty ballot is an option. And, frankly, lack of voter turnout is a bigger message to the two parties than empty ballots it seems.