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Re: email to the president

 scotter@eden.com (Scotter) wrote:
 > (2) If all libertarians voted for Dole because they figured their
 > votes would be lost on Harry Browne (Libertarian candidate), then
 > guess what?  The LP would be hurt, if not destroyed.  By voting LP
 > this election year, not only am I supporting whatever chance they 
 > may
 > have (however small) at putting a president in the WH in 96, but I'm
 > also supporting their future.
 > 
 > (3) I choose to be one of those people that people say "If everyone
 > voted like him, we would not be in the mess we are in..." about.
 It sounds nice, but I'm sitting here in England, where they have three 
 major parties and several itty bitty ones, and here's what I saw: around 
 60% of the voting population voted for someone other than the Tories.  
 However, these votes were mostly split between the Labour Party and the 
 Liberal/Lib Dem party (some votes going variously to the SDP, the BNP, 
 the Greens, the Monster Raving Loonies, etc.).  With only around 40% of 
 the vote, Margaret Thatcher managed to stay in power for over a decade, 
 followed then by the equally-popular John Major.
 So you have a situation where the majority of voters actively opposed the 
 winner.
 Is that good?
 Now, in Britain, voters have no immediate choice in who the party 
 candidates will be, but that's not true in America, where we have 
 primaries.  This means you have far more input at an earlier point in the 
 proceedings.  You know the race will really be between the Dems and the 
 Repubs.  Vote in the primaries for one of these parties to get a 
 candidate in each category who is closest to your own tastes.  You may 
 also influence your candidates for Congress by writing to them directly - 
 they have to answer your letters.
 And if you're into long-term planning, make sure and vote for everything 
 down to dog-catcher - today's local candidate for School Board could be 
 tomorrow's President.
 What are your chances?  Maybe they are pretty slim.  But if everyone who 
 really cares about free speech made that a priority and went to the polls 
 and wrote letters to back it up, we might just have a Congress (and all 
 those potential presidents) to show it someday.
 Avedon (who personally likes the Raving Monster Loony Party)
 Feminists Against Censorship
 http://www.fullfeed.com/hypatia/censor.html