Not Voting

[Capitalism Forever]

In my view, the two presidents eligible for the title are the ones who stood for capitalism: Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan. Perhaps Coolidge had fewer ideological flaws (at least fewer that I know about), but in terms of rhetoric, Reagan has no match.

[Wyatt70]

This not an easy decision by any means, especially since I think this will be one of the most important elections in our nation's history. If John Kerry wins, I think it will be one of the most serious setbacks to capitalists since the election of FDR.

I can't justify not voting as long as we have free elections. We may not like the choices presented to us, but at least we have choices.

That leaves the question of who to vote for. Obviously, there is no way I could vote for John Kerry. The only candidates I can consider are Bush and the Libertarian candidate. Both choices have their pros and cons.

Bush Pros

1) He's willing to fight terrorists and other dangerous regimes

2) He's in favor of free market reforms such as medical savings accounts and privatizing Social Security

Bush Cons

1) He expanded Medicare and Medicaid

2) His religion leads him to make bad choices in how he fights the war and bad choices in domestic policies

3) He doesn't seem to know how to fight the propaganda war against the media elites and the liberals

4) Gives lip service to many free market reforms, but caves in on specific policies such as steel tariffs

Libertarian Pros

1) The only candidate sworn to eliminate the welfare state in its entirety

2) The only candidate sworn to withdraw from the UN

3) The only candidate sworn to stop the destructive War on Drugs

Libertarian Cons

1) No chance of winning

2) Unwilling to fight in Iraq

3) No underlying moral philosophy

I'm leaning towards Bush at the moment, because we cannot afford to pull out of Iraq at this point in time.