Revolutionary Moderation

Update



I initailly wrote this as an update to the second-last post, but I think it's worth a post of its own.



Libby, I'm sorry. I'm listening to soon-to-be-former Saskatchewan NDP member Dick Proctor suggest what Libby Davies did yesterday, that "strategic" voting by stupid people cost him his seat. In fact, he mentioned that he spent the last couple of days on the doors of Liberal marks, trying to convince them that since it was a two-way race between himself and the Conservative, they should decide between the two... essentially the argument I've made. In the meantime, his own supporters were thinking that a vote for the Liberals would help beat the Conservatives. Because they were. Dumb. Asses.



This will be my final word on strategic voting, certainly until the next election. I wrote my original treatise on it because I was afraid people might be confused by the concept, and do exactly what so many of them did - organize their vote around one of the two leading national parties, no matter what was going on in their riding. To call that a "strategic" vote is to unfairly denegrate the concept... there's nothing strategic about that at all.



The NDP bad-mouths strategic voting, and I guess they must know their voters, because whereas actual strategic voting would help them in lots of places - would have put Dick Proctor over the top, I'll bet - just voting Liberal or Conservative without any idea of the top two in the riding would certainly not. I'll add that I'm more than a little concerned that the party of my heart is supported by so many voters who don't get this simple concept.



Look. If you're confused by what I'm talking about, stop trying to vote strategically. You're just making things worse.



(I stand by my concerns about Layton and the Prairies, but that's a post for another day.)