About a week ago Jacob Levy asked whether he should vote libertarian for President, and concluded in the negative, at least for this time around. I have no qualms with Jacob’s points, but I will suggest an alternative option for thinking through the problem.
1. Your vote will not count, no matter what. If the election is close, the courts will decide it. “They” won’t let me (or Jacob) decide an election.
2. The most important effect of your vote is on yourself. Over time people come to identify with their previous political commitments. “Digging in” is a much more frequent phenomenon than is “conversion.” If you vote libertarian [fill in another other party name here], you will likely become more libertarian over time.
3. So ask yourself whether you wish to become, both publicly and privately, more toward the mainstream or more toward your potential third party vote. Make your decision accordingly.
Note that the above analysis is strictly concerned with consequences. You might instead think it is simply the “right thing” to act in a universalizable fashion, a’ la Kant. Or perhaps you should vote for “the better man,” regardless of consequences; you can imagine other variants on these views. Point granted. But insofar as you wield the sword of consequentialism, recognize that the relevant consequences really center around yourself. A similar analysis can hold, I might add, when choosing across the two major parties; that is my advice to Daniel Drezner.
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