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Jaworski: I would vote for Bob Barr

Peter Jaworski says he'd cast a reluctant ballot for Libertarian Bob Barr

Peter Jaworski - November 3, 2008

If I could vote in the U.S., I would be tempted to abstain. I would also be tempted to scribble my own name as a write-in candidate. You can do that in the U.S., and I think it would be interesting to tell people that I received a vote for president of the United States -- even if it was my own vote.

I've always found it somewhat surprising that not more people write their own names down on the ballot. It's not like your vote matters to the outcome of the election. I doubt anyone seriously believes that if they stay home, the election will turn out differently than had they voted.

This is, at any rate, the result of reading too much economics, especially rational choice theory and the works of people like James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock. For most of us, voting is such a poor use of our time and energy that it's almost always not worth doing. And if you're a libertarian, that reasoning usually makes it a certainty that it will be a waste of your time. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are interested in smaller government or individual liberty, and their lack of interest in what matters to me translates into my lack of interest in them.

But I don't vote to change the outcome of elections. That would be irrational. Instead, I vote for symbolic reasons, and expressivist reasons. Which is why, in the last few elections, I've cast ballots for Libertarians, or formally rejected my ballot. And if I could vote in the U.S. election, I'd most likely put an "X" next to Bob Barr.

And not because I like Bob Barr, I don't. But I like the U.S. Libertarian Party, and my vote would be for them, not for Barr.

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Peter Jaworski is editor of the Western Standard, a visiting instructor in philosophy at the College of Wooster, and a PhD student in philosophy at Bowling Green State University.

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