How to change people's perception of "wasted vote"

[hyoomen]

Who said I was simply asking for *this* election? Sure we are all hoping to change minds in context of this election, but I was irrevocably called to duty yesterday by Congressman Paul when he said at UNT that the changes that MUST happen cannot come in just a four year Presidential term, but must come over a generation. A revolution of such magnitude cannot, however, occur without coming up with effective means of destroying the old paradigm and its "wasted vote" meme (among others).

Freedom may not be popular today, but it will have to be some day.

 

[UnitedWeStand]

1. They can get another chance to vote for the "frontrunner" in the general election.

2. The votes he gets validates his platform and encourages other candidates to return to conservative principles.

3. Ron Paul is the only candidate that can beat the democrats in the general election. This is so, so true and we all know it--any "on the fence" supporter knows it too.

 

[LandonCook]

1 You can't waste your vote in a primary

2 Any vote for more of the same or worse is a wasted vote.

 

[Tdcci]

For a longer lasting solution™, work with state and local legislatures to promote Instant-runoff voting.

 

[Akus]

My apologies if there is already a thread for this, but I couldn't find it with a couple of simple searches.

What are people's strategies for overcoming the argument against voting for Ron Paul because such a vote would be 'wasted' or 'thrown away'. Essentially this comes down to the electability issue.

The basic "he's electable if we all vote for him" rhetoric is ineffective for stubborn supporters of this idea. I'd like some irrefutable or extremely inspirational responses.

Thanks.

You can try telling them that RP is the only Republican that will win the Presidential election in November.

 

[hawks4ronpaul]

A conservative not voting for RP is (hypothetically) like a Reaganite saying, "The polls show that Hillary is going to beat Reagan so I better vote for Hillary."

It makes no sense at all.

If they still would vote for Reagan, then they still should vote for Paul.


http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/

 

[zmyrick19]

You can vote for either of two candidates, the one you think will do the most good or the one you think will win. If you just vote for the candidate you think you will win, you are simply betraying your conscience and ability to reason.

This is an epic quote that should be shared far and wide.

 

[acptulsa]

I agree with everyone who posted. All these reasoned arguments are true.

In 1996 there was an episode of The Simpsons in which both Clinton and Dole were replaced by evil aliens. The deception came out late in the season, and a person in the crowd yelled, "I'm voting for Perot." The crowd cheered up. Then one of the evil aliens said, "Go ahead, throw your vote away," and the crowd turned away groaning in sadness.

That was a dozen years ago, and you see how far we have (or haven't) come.

The key is, when a non-machine politician wins, the old conventional wisdom will be disproven. Note that they combined everyone's non-Paul vote in Louisiana, redistributed them, and hushed the press just to prevent that from happening. It would have been and should have been the breakthrough--but Huckabee voters were disenfranchised, and the rest is history.

There are a lot of such lessons in this election. Let the education begin!

 

[acptulsa]

In fact, portions of that Simpsons episode would be just the thing right now. Suppose they'd mind if someone YouTubed it?

 

[scandinaviany3]

easy to do this year

1st this is the primary so vote for those that represent you, since their will be no majority anyway, there are too many factions and you want to have your issues supported so vote for the person that supports your issues the strongest.

2nd john mccain is hated by his own party. He has absolutely no chance of beating the democrats whatsoever. So vote for anyone but john mccain in the primary in the hope to save the primary in convention and save our party from loosing in the fall. Remind them we got john mccain because too many candidates were in the race diluting the vote, while the media said hillary would be the opponent and their so called polls said john could beat her. Now Obama will win, John can no beat obama as Rush Limbaugh has pointed out. So we have all been tricked by the DC insiders and their media connections. We have to take back our election process while there is still time and dump mccain in order not to loose in the general. This is the most serious election in a life time it cant be squandered because of liberal invasions in our process. We must fight back and stop John McCain's nomination no matter what.

 

[acptulsa]

How about, "So you're one of those Diebold theorists who don't believe they actually count our votes?"

If we find the answer to the OP's question, we have the key to victory. What is it?

 

[LEK]

Voting your conscience is never a waste.