Feelings
Whoa, whoa, feelings…
Some background music while you read…
So you're voting libertarian…because it makes you feel good. You’re voting libertarian, even though it will accomplish nothing other than indulge your feelings, and does nothing to actually preserve gun rights. After all, while the Libertarian Party nominee has made some pretty juicy statements to entice 2nd Amendment supporters, she has offered no realistic plans to achieve her stated goals, and doesn’t even address gun rights as an issue on her campaign website. You might as well be a 7th-grader, voting for the kid who guarantees extra recess (and more!) if elected student body president.
Children act on feelings. Children throw tantrums when they can’t have ice cream for dinner. Adults make decisions based on reason, and often that means doing something they don’t necessarily want to do. Adults do the right things, and make the right choices, even if it would make them feel better to do something else. I would feel better if I stayed home and slept tonight, but going to work and earning a living is the rational thing to do. It might feel better to vote for a candidate who says all the right things (even though they have no strategy to deliver on their promises and no chance of winning), but the rational strategy is to select the candidate who has promised to advance the policies you claim to care about, and actually has a chance to do it.
“But I don’t like the two-party system! I wanna vote for the candidate who promised to repeal all gun laws!”
But go ahead and indulge yourself and your feelings, and vote third party if you like. Preen in the mirror and congratulate yourself on your superior moral position as your candidate fails to deliver even a single electoral vote. But do so with the knowledge that at best, your vote had no impact at all in the outcome of the election. At worst, you can know that your vote aided the candidate who has sworn to infringe on your 2nd Amendment rights to an extent never seen before. I hope you feel better. I really do.
