Do you see a reason to facilitate the election of Obami?
O.K., let me explain this again and maybe you'll get it this time.
If 1,700,000,000 voters in my state (Connecticut) vote for Obama and 450,000 vote for McCain, Obama easily wins the popular vote in Connecticut and captures it's 7 electoral votes. He'll need 270 to win the election.
Are you still with me? Good.
If I don't vote for McCain but instead, vote for some independent candidate, that will mean that 1,700,000 votes still go to Obama and 449,000 now go to McCain. Even if every registered Republican in my state (408,000) voted for McCain, he would still lose and Obama would still get the 7 electoral votes. Got that?
So, my (theoretical) vote for McCain, a man I disagree with on many, many political and cultural issues, would not come close to changing the electoral votes Obama will get from winning the popular vote in Connecticut, which he is pretty much guaranteed to win, based on demographics and past election results and almost always going to the Democrat candidate. 'Unaffiliated' voters are heavily represented in Connecticut (almost 1 million) but they usually vote Democrat and probably register as 'unaffiliated' to kid themselves that they're not really liberal Democrats or else just to keep the DNC from pestering them for donations.
Why should I vote for a man whose politics I disagree with only slightly less than I disagree with those of Barack Obama? Especially when my vote cannot counter the overwhelming amount of votes Obama will receive in this traditionally liberal state? That makes no sense.
My voting for an independent presidential candidate, while voting the rest of the Republican ticket in no way 'facilitates' the possible election of Barack Obama. To believe that it does places symbolism over substance.
I think those who may live in Republican-friendly states with a strong conservative presence in each election simply do not grasp the difficulties inherent when you're a political conservative living in a very liberal state basically run by leftist Democrats with a near-moribund Republican party. Just 'voting Republican' doesn't mean much when 75% of the citizens in your state vote Democrat in every election, filling the legislature, the mayor's offices, court benches and many important offices with liberals. When it comes to the Electoral College calculations, Connecticut is solidly in the Obama camp and one vote for McCain, a man I strongly disagree with, especially on amnesty for illegal aliens, just doesn't make much sense, if you look at thr realities involved.
While I hope and pray that Obama will lose the election (and I think that'll happen) I'm less than enthused over the 'moderate maverick' McCain and I will not vote for him. I know McCain privately sneers at my political and some of my cultural beliefs. That is his privilege. It is my privilege to not give him my vote in this election. I've carefully explained the reasons why. If you cannot understand them or simply don't care, so be it. That is my decision.
Why not? The whole rest of the GOP establishment does.