Voting is important only if you cast your vote against evil. The Demrep one party offers two evil candidates to give you the illusion of choice. To paraphrase JFK's famous quote about Berlin, regarding the GOP and the Democrats, "We are all Progressives." Voting for any of those lying looters after the obvious results of doing so for the past 50 years is suicide for liberty.
Vote for evil, you get evil. That is the history of presidential elections for the past 50 years with only Reagan as an arguable respite.
N E V E R vote for the lesser of two evils.
N E V E R make excuses like how much worse it would have been if the other evil looter had won, because you can't possibly know.
Would Gore have been a horrible POTUS? imo, that is likely.Would he ever have gotten the support to destroy the Bill of Rights as Bush did? Not any more than Clintion did. Bush was a hard act to follow for worst POTUS in history. Had Gore been in office, it's unlikely that Obama would have had any chance to be elected and unseat Bush for that honor, imo. Unfortunately, America might have had Bush instead of Obama after Gore, so the worst president of all time prize would likely have been a close race between the looters.
See how convoluted things can get. It's impossible to predict with any confidence.
One thing can be predicted based on 50 years of history. Voting for evil solves nothing and evil continues to grow more powerful.
If you vote, then vote rationally and only against evil, not for evil. Vote rationally against the DemReps. Their candidates can only be trusted to be statists and against individual liberty.

Undoubtedly true. Perot was the wild card that forced the one party system puppeteers to keep out all candidates with integrity and ethics.

At the time I wished I was old enough to vote for AUH2O, the last conservative candidate.

Never smoked and broke the voting habit after Clinton's first election, although it was Gingrich's flim flam that completely opened my eyes to the fraud of the one party system. Having lived o/s for some years, I now think that voting for any rational choice but the DemReps is the only possible chance for a peaceful return to the Jeffersonian founder's republic. If voters continue to choose evil statists (aka DemReps), America will continue to get evil statists until the great collapse (likely followed by world statist government and never ending war, pestilence, and slavery.)

A new President may not make the big differences, but if he is an eloquent speaker (Obama is NOT), he can, at least, have a positive effect upon the citizenry...who may then elect better representatives.

The Obama administration had one good effect on the populace...the last midterm election showed that someone was watching what was going on and decided to attempt a change for what was perceived as the better.

Old dino, when the time comes, I will probably vote, too. Old habits are hard to break.

For my entire life I have voted in local, state and Federal elections. I believe voting for those in charge is a privilege, a right, and one's civil duty. We don't always get the candidate of our choice. There are many opinions as to who will do the best job. But I still vote. My stance has always been if one does not vote they give up their platform for discourse. One must participate to be a player. How can I voice my opinion of a particular candidate if I didn't vote for him or his opponent? Even if that vote turned out to be the lesser of evils.

Voting is also a choice. That is as it should be in the Republic of America. However, with that choice comes consequences. Imagine, for a moment, how the years 2001 to 2004 would have turned out if Al Gore had won the 2000 election. That election came down to Florida and approximately 500 votes. It was a very devisive election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta...... The State of Florida probably wouldn't have changed the election outcome but if all of those 537 people in Florida had said my vote doesn't count so screw it -- the country and posssibly the world would be a very different place today. Voting is how the people can effectively change the landscape of the society they live in.

I am a member of a family with a long line of Liberals. Not sure how that happened. My Mom never voted nor did my sister. My brother only voted when someone he liked was the candidate. My step-father always voted also. We used to have some ummm discussions about voting. I also have those same discussion on Social Media. It saddens me the number of folks who don't believe the "idea" of America is worth fighting for. Progressives don't want Conservative minded folks to vote at all. They win.

Conservatives outnumber Liberals in America but because of faulty thinking that a particular vote doesn't matter Liberals get the upper hand. In 2008 I voted for McCain even though I consider him a Progressive Conservative. However, because he wasn't Conservative enough millions didn't bother to vote. The same BS happened in 2012 with Romney. With that kind of thinking it will be decades, if ever, that America returns to the Founder's idea for the great American Dream of Liberty and Freedom. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govb......

What I tell my kids and my family, meaning no disrespect, get off your dead ass and vote in all elections. America is to important to allow the Progressives to win. I don't want a world like Atlas Shrugged. I want all of the world to be Galt's Gulch.

Hi, Zenphamy. You said that "naive pacifist anarchists and agorist[s]" dilute the "intellectual and even emotional foundations" of Libertarian and Objectivist groups. Can you expand on that? Do you think "good" Libertarians and Objectivists are aggressive and/or warmongers? My understanding is that anarchism or voluntaryism is based on the non-aggression principle, which precludes initiating violence, but not defending oneself. It seems you decry the presence of those who aren't willing to initiate violence, is that correct?

I think the only candidates who will be allowed to compete in a national election must necessarily be "men of the system."

Me too! LOL

Voting for Goldwater... "If you vote for Goldwater," my friend said that his friends told him, "we'll get stuck in a land war in Southeast Asia." He reports, "They were right. I voted for Goldwater, and that's what happened."

I'm afraid that the anti-objectivist virus is already a pandemic. Those infected must be written off and the rest should strive to save themselves with the possible help of Dr. Rand who has the so-far little-known cure.

Old dino has no intention of not voting,
I'm too stubborn to set aside my principle that voting is my patriotic duty.
But if faced with a Jeb Bush, I'm voting Libertarian or some other third party.
I also have the option of sticking a blank paper ballot into the machine that stands beside the exit.
.That last option also counts as a vote.

It is very sad. The elites have taken over our country and IMHO the only fix is a re-start. And that in itself is very scary because it is unlikely that a re-start will look anything like what our founders set up.

Yawn. I was expecting an actual breakdown of how the author sees each candidate in relation to his values. This is a far cry from anything more than a complaint piece about the political system - albeit with a few really nice quotes thrown in.

And that is so sad, edweaver. But I'm tired of hearing people say that we get the government we voted for. Not me! I never had a say about any of the nonsense I am having to deal with every day.

I agree, voting has become a waste of time. Brings to life..."Who is John Galt?".

I'm with ya, Mamaemma! These last mid-term elections marked the first time I hadn't voted since 1972. At long last I finally realized that there's effectively no difference between the candidates or parties. They all preach campaign finance reform, yet it never happens. They all promise smaller, less intrusive government, yet it never happens. They all promise lower taxes, yet it never happens.

I agree with Mr. Mark Twain who said, "If voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it".

I can't remember when I voted for the candidate that won. Oh yes, I can. It was Goldwater in the primary. And and a man who was running for Superintendent of Public Instruction. They both got plummeled.
Do you have mailed in ballots? I do, and vote at home and Mail the ballot in. That makes it very easy to vote. I just hate to see others not voting.
I live in a state where the primaries are all ready decided Before I get to vote.
However, I do vote just to let those liberals know they are not getting my vote!
I just hate to give up.

Honestly, autumnleaves, I believe that the vote count has nothing to do with the actual votes, so there is no reason for me to vote. And even if I am wrong, and I wish I was, I live in a gerrymandered district so that the candidate I vote for never wins. It's a waste of my time to vote in this country today.

Mamaemma, why? I'm a hopin we objectivists can agree on one candidate and vote Enmas..
Just to let the world know that we know what is going on!

This will be the first time I haven't voted since I was 18. 44 years

Its going to take a lot of Objectivist viruses to infect that many imbeciles.

Good thinking, Zen. Wish we could infect the populace with your understanding of reality.

It is so simplistic to imagine that an elected President, the talking head of those imbedded throughout government, can really make any significant, real change at the individual voter level during one term, even two. Those that agree with the statist give freer rein to the agents of socialism, while those that might disagree strongly, if elected, will simply be killed if they attempt to effect actual change.

We need at least one generation if not two to allow attrition to deplete the socialists that developed during the 70's and 80's, throughout the hidden government; the bureaucracies and agencies, the foundations, and the institutions that support or subvert what voters may voice through elections. While Libertarians and even Objectivist are seeing an increase in those that identify as such, they still are a very minor part of the population and nearly 0 of the hidden government. If you watch such groups, particularly the Libertarians, you will note a significant voice of naive pacifist anarchists and agorist, which only dilutes the intellectual and even emotional foundations of such groups.

The strength to effect real change has to come from the citizenry. Nothing else will work.