Below are the opinions of the author, not a formal position of the Libertarian Party of Maryland.
Election day has arrived and today, November 3rd, is the last day you can vote for candidates who consistently and vigorously support liberty in Maryland. Voting for Jo Jorgensen for President and Jeremy ‘Spike’ Cohen for Vice-President may not change this year’s electoral votes from Maryland, but every vote counts towards sending an unequivocal signal that you support liberty as a value in our political system.
The Republican and Democratic candidates are compromised. They pretend to care about liberty while announcing schemes that will reduce your liberty and limit your ability to make choices to direct your life. They may gratuitously pick one or two of our issues to support, rhetorically, but ask yourself how long have their parties paid lip service to such issues but failed to deliver? It is the ultimate version of the Charlie Brown football trick and sadly, many will think the ball will be there to kick this next time because of course this is the “most important election of our lifetime.” We’ve all heard that before. We’ll no doubt hear it again.
It is easy to get disheartened by the political process, especially in Maryland when there is almost no chance that anyone other than the Democrat will win. But that also gives voters who care about certain issues greater license to vote their conscience rather than settle for voting for or against the old legacy parties.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you support the right of self-defense and the 2nd Amendment protections.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you support a substantial reduction in the size and scope of government and government authority.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you support uncompromising solutions to ending police brutality and abuse.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you support ending the failed drug war and finally legalizing cannabis.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you want a rollback of the privacy intrusions of the surveillance state.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you want private, not public, solutions towards jobs, a healthy and fair economy, better education, better health care, and private environmental solutions.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you want an end to the foreign wars and the constant foreign interventionism.
- Voting Libertarian is the strongest signal you can send if you want really eliminate oppressive taxes and begin balancing budgets rather than passing debt down to future generations.
Voting Libertarian sends these signals to the political system because the Libertarian candidates Jo Jorgensen and Spike Cohen are, like the countless other Libertarian candidates all around the country, uncompromising in their commitment to these values. It sends these signals clearly because a vote for a Libertarian is for a party that is consistently advocating for these values. Voting for the old legacy parties’ candidates sends almost no signal other than you dislike or like Trump’s personality politics. Whomever wins will have almost no mandate on issues because this election hasn’t been about issues (that won’t stop the victor’s supporters for trying to interpret the outcome as a mandate for their preferred positions).
Not voting at all is worse still, because you provide no input that isn’t interpreted as silence. The silence of others is always interpreted, like the false mandate, as a reflection of the interpreter’s preconceived beliefs, not those of the non-voter. It will never be interpreted as a rejection of the system or their candidates (that’s what a vote for a Libertarian does), because in politics, like much of life, it is all about who stands up and is counted for something. The politicians, the media, your fellow citizens, they cannot hazard to guess what you mean by your decision not to vote, but if there was a Libertarian on the ballot and you didn’t vote, they can conclude you were not committed enough to liberty to at least give your support to a candidate who tried to bring liberty into the electoral process. With that conclusion in hand, they can feel safe that you won’t bother them further. If you want to bother the political class further, you’ll have to vote for an alternative. You will have to vote Libertarian.
Finally, I want to thank all the volunteers, the donors, and the candidates who put so much time and effort to participate in the political process and support the Libertarian Party of Maryland. There is nothing easy about our brand of politics. Unlike most voters who just have to register, we had to work hard just to be given the chance to vote for our candidates. We had to gather petition signatures for countless hours. We took time off from work, from our families, from our hobbies, to let a Libertarian option be represented. In doing so we help build the platform upon which future growth can occur. Every step forward prevents a step backwards, every step forward puts us in the position to bring some future child into a world that is free.
Eric Bliz