A Vote for John McCain a Wasted Vote?

As one who has voted for the Constitution Party candidate in the last two presidential elections, I have been told countless times that I was just wasting my vote: "A vote for anyone other than George W. bush is just a vote for the Democrats." Well, Bush won in 2000 and again in 2004. He didn't need my vote. The Republicans prevailed -- and we still ended up losing.

Under the leadership of the GOP, government has only grown bigger, more expensive, and more intrusive. If I had voted for Bush, I would have only become part of the problem. So, why should I listen to anyone saying that a vote for a third party candidate this time around is wasted?

I was (and still am) a big supporter of Ron Paul, but since he has officially dropped out of the presidential race, I plan on casting my vote for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party. I tend to agree with libertarian Karl Hess, who said, "Your vote isn't a bet on who's going to win the election. It's a statement of who you are."

Besides, one could argue that a vote for a major party candidate who has no chance of winning is just as wasted as any other. Chuck Baldwin writes:

With only three weeks before the election, Barack Obama is pulling away. McCain has already pulled his campaign out of Michigan. In other key battleground states, McCain is slipping fast. He was ahead in Missouri; now it is a toss-up or leaning to Obama. A couple of weeks ago, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida were all leaning towards McCain, or at least toss-up states. Now, they are all leaning to Obama. Even the longtime GOP bellwether state of Indiana is moving toward Obama. In addition, new voter registrations are at an all-time high, and few of them are registering as Republicans. In fact, the Republican Party now claims only around 25% of the electorate, and Independents are increasingly leaning toward Obama.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is headed for an electoral landslide victory over John McCain. John McCain can no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton.

I ask, therefore, are not conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain guilty of the same thing that they accuse people who vote for third party candidates of doing? Are they not voting for someone who cannot win? Indeed, they are. In fact, conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain are not only voting for a man who cannot win, they are voting for a man who does not share their own beliefs and principles. If this is not insanity, nothing is!

A vote for a third party candidate will at least send the message that we are fed up with the status quo. We simply cannot continue doing the same thing we've always done and expect a different result. That really is the definition of insanity.