Time for NOTA

It is time to stop allowing the political establishment to whipsaw us with this triangulation garbage. The fact of the matter is that neither party represents voters who value constitutional government and a vote for a 3rd Party will accomplish what votes for 3rd Parties usually accomplish: Nothing.

While there is no question that the election of John Kerry to the Presidency will be disastrous, in the long run it will not be as catastrophic as continuing our relentless march into the abyss. The GOP national leadership has abandoned its base and arrogantly believes that real conservatives "have no place to go." Re-election of this "compassionate" neo-conservative President will not necessarily produce a different result. The national GOP is in the hands of a pseudo-conservative clique that is trashing our national sovereignty by ignoring the invasion of illegals, growing the Welfare State through massive increases in spending, and building the foundations of a police state on the ashes of the American republic.

It is time for every Republican and Independent who cares about the long-term future of this nation to go to the polls on the first Tuesday in November and write in "NOTA" (for "none of the above).

The pragmatists among us (who can see no further down the road then the next election) will scream that this is a wasted vote and that it will result in the election of John Kerry. So be it. One definition of insanity is to continue to repeat the same action in the belief a different result will occur. We have been listening to these pragmatic voices and voting for "the lesser of two evils" for decades now and it has gotten us huge deficits, a $2 trillion dollar a year federal government, massive intrusions into our daily lives, and a steady decline in Washington's constitutional legitimacy.

Senator Alan Simpson used to say, "There are two parties in this country; the evil party and the stupid party. I belong to the stupid party." If we continue to support socialists just because they are running under the GOP label, we will be proving Simpson right. As a life-long conservative Republican activist and a veteran, I'm done with this approach and I urge you to join me.

I heard that they have this option on the ballot in Nevada. I was just curious as to how successful it has been in that state. I mean, are the politicians there any less avaricious than those of other, neighboring states, where this option is unavailable?

My question is just a way of getting at the true effectiveness of this strategy. I mean, Russia has the none of the above option and I don't see that nation as a sterling example of democratic government in action.

"I heard that they have this option on the ballot in Nevada. I was just curious as to how successful it has been in that state."

It is pointless. Even if NOTA gets a plurality or even a majority of votes in Nevada, the "winner" is the candidate who received more votes than any other candidate, and NOTA is *not* a candidate.

How could you have an election and have no winner? What are you going to do, force another election? And what happens when the previous officeholder's term expires and no one has been elected to replace him? It just doesn't make a lick of sense.

I kind of figured that would be the destination for most of these elections.

Just look at the first few democratic elections that occurred in Serbia in the aftermath of Milosovic's electoral defeat in 1999.

There was an unrealistic threshold set for voter participation-especially in a country which was already politically disaffected due to the actions of NATO, the EU, and its own corrupt, party apparatchiks-and then the voters were forced to rerun the election several times, with the exact result that the brain trust who had devised these ridiculous guidelines did not want!

To me, the 'NOTA' option is just another excuse for people to piss and moan about politics without doing anything substantive to ameliorate the problems that they are so quick to point out to their fellow citizens.

Kudos to you, Mr. Brady! Thank God there are some actual conservatives out there. I have been trying to influence my local GOP for years, without much success. I have watched our platform (a pretty good one) go through county, district, and even held up fairly well at state, then it falls apart at national. Also, the same people ("moderates") are continually in the power positions. Our party has routinely ignored the conservative candidates in favor of pragmatic moderates, only to lose in the general elections to the Dems. I too, am sick of it, but until we are able to educate our follow Republicans, or to gain enough power to steer our local nominations, we are pretty much out of the contest.

Incidentally, if you want more informational "ammo", check out the John Birch Society (www.jbs.org) and start subscribing to The New American (www.tna.com). I have been a member for about 12 years, and find the fellowship indispensible in calming my disposition. Nothing beats the political outsider blues like some positive activism.

As to voting for NOTA, why not tell everyone you know to write in the name of some conservative candidate you like? This seems like a more positive approach to avoiding a vote for a liberal Republican. You could also make sure your local central committee knows what you intend to do. This might help wake up a few of them Good luck, and stay in there, we need you.

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