Clinton Greene writing for LRC on Are Conservatives Ready for Patriotic Triage?
A vote for Bush will not merely support his past policies. It is not enough to imagine a Bush administration win in 2004 as validation for his current expansion of police powers, secret courts and secret nullification of citizenship. It is not enough to imagine a Bush win as validating his impulsive pre-emptive wars. It is not enough even to imagine the solidification of the new precedents, the current "Patriot Act" made a permanent part of police practice (formal or informal), and a new trigger-happy and scattered approach to foreign interventions, and a permanent assigning of congressional war powers to future presidents.
It is important to remember that in this his first term Bush has always been facing re-election. We are tempted to think he has been only a bit rash in handing out war contracts to favored businesses, only a bit sloppy with the truth of the Iraq threat, only a bit cavalier in abandoning his campaign pledge to be the education president. You may think these are minor lapses of character compared to the truly serious issues of civil rights, constitutional powers and pre-emptive war.
But the real Bush has still not been revealed. However unfortunate his policies may seem now, his administration is still trying to answer its critics and to look ahead to the election. After 2004 there will be no restraint. The man who knows God is on his side will have only our cowed Congress to stand in his way. One can only expect the core impulse against the Bill of Rights and for military adventures to have freer reign. The real Bush has still not been revealed.
I see where Greene is going with it, but I'd still feel like a sellout if my vote didn't go to the candidate who shares my views, even if that candidate has no hope in Hell of garnering even 5% of the vote, than to one of the big government Republicrats or Demopublicans who haven't earned it. I'm not rewarding Bush for the Patriot ACT and his continued war on the Bill of Rights, just as I don't trust any of the Democrats to do the right thing either. Am I throwing away my vote? Who cares. It is my vote to throw away. I'm sure that the 'libertarian' pro-Administration types will disagree, as most of them are really Republicans at heart anyway. Crypto-libertarian Republicans have long been a major issue in the libertarian movement. Sue me if you don't like it. It needed to be said.
Link courtesy of Lee McCracken Strike The Root's blog.