Should I even vote?
In this election cycle I think the question is less about who will best "lead" the country but rather who will hurt the country the least. Clinton, having a long career of scandals, is my choice for the worst choice and Trump seems to be the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately I still do not support him.
In the recent debate Trump brought up issues with the fed, the current bubble we are in, and the tax system that I was very happy to hear talked about. There wasn't much time given to discuss the subjects but just them being brought up is a good thing. However, Trump also discussed his support for stop and frisk, minimum wage increases, gun restrictions for people placed on the no fly list, and I don't agree with his immigration policy.
Stop and frisk is unconstitutional whether it was ruled so by a judge or not. It is your right to freely travel, unmolested, being safe and secure in your person and property. For an officer to search you they must have a warrant or reasonable suspicion that you have or intend to commit a crime. Stop and frisk goes against the 4th amendment without question, and I can't support it. The 4th amendment is very important and makes too much sense to have in a free society not to support it.
A minimum wage increase would hurt our countries economy. Let's consider the $15 minimum wage increase being demanded by many fast food workers. If that were to happen, many who are demanding that increase would loose their jobs. I have worked at McDonald's and Little Caesars and I can honestly say the work isn't worth $15 an hour. You hardly have to prepare anything. Everything comes frozen and ready to either throw on grill or dunk in oil. No skill is required. Preparing the food is also very low skill. Mustard, ketchup, onions, pickles, cheese, and patty from the pre made patty warmer. Boom, you made a cheese burger. Very little skill and intelligence is needed to do that. Or to make a pizza you start at the middle, 6 pepperonis in a line, then 5, then, 4, then repeat on the other side. Done. If you can't do these things you have some bigger issues than your wage. Once the owner of the fast food company decides to automate ordering, which will happen because paying someone $15 to stand around and hate their job is ridiculous, there will only be room for good employees who are worth paying $15 an hour. The rest will get canned. More unemployment, more people on welfare programs, less jobs in the market, bad for economy. I don't see the appeal for raising minimum wages.
The no fly list is something I am not an expert on but I still don't believe should prohibit you from owning a gun. Aside from being a non citizen, I can't think of one reason why you should be restricted from owning a gun. Now if we're going to talk about people who are dangerous to society not owning guns then shouldn't we be more focused on people with SSRI prescription pills owning guns? Or what about people who grew up without a father present? They both statistically are more prone to engage in gun violence, but the argument is for banning people on a no fly list which you can be put on without being charged with a crime or even notified. You could do absolutely nothing wrong and pose no threat to the public and be banned from owning a firearm. No no no!
Now immigration is tricky. I recognize that illegal immigration now is not good for our country because there are ways for illegals to take advantage of our medical care without paying into it. They are also living here and using the roads and other things that US citizens pay for. But the complaint that they are taking our jobs is just plain stupid. Our jobs are not disappearing because some Mexicans are coming here to be janitors, construction workers, cement pourers, or any other job that they take. We are loosing jobs because policies make it more profitable to produce overseas and import back home. Having an overwhelmingly consumer based economy is bad for business. No where else can people consume without producing on the scale that Americans can. That's where all of our jobs are. The system we live under now sucks, if I could choose id say open up the boarders and let people go where they want, but under the current system that is unfair to the US citizens. So we should build a wall? We should deport people? NO! The system needs to change. It's our fault we aloud a shitty system to be put into place that screws us over, not the fault of Mexicans. Building a wall won't solve the problem, cracking down on immigration may help, yes, but it is not what is causing the problem and Trumps solutions won't solve it.
So I'm left with deciding whether these are things I should look past so I can vote and do my part to keep Hillary from winning or not vote at all. If I'm voting on principle I still can't even vote for Gary Johnson so it's either Trump or no one, and I just don't know what I should do. If I vote for Trump I am going against what I believe in. If I don't vote and Clinton wins I will have to live with knowing I didn't do my part. Not to say my one vote matters at all but if I vote at least I'm trying, right? If you've got some insight id love to hear it.
Curious to know more about that. Which principled reasons would prevent a vote for Gary?
As for my part, I'm tempted to vote in "no rulers" though it seems even that vote just goes in the trash. We have a lot of problems, for sure, but I think many of them come from a single issue with our thinking: the belief in authority. We can not delegate rights we do not have and the government is defined as having a monopoly on the initiation of force within a geographic region, something no other human has a right to do so no other human should be able to delegate that function to government. Any time we have false monopolies (especially those maintained by coercion), we have distorted incentives and corruption. I posted a couple other articles you may find interesting here and here. Good luck on your journey and thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope more people will engage your difficult questions and help us all move towards a future with increased well-being for all.
Gary Johnson isn't a real libertarian, he is only running as one because he needed a platform. Libertarians seem to want to vote for him because he is more libertarian than most republicans, which is why he'll never be the GOP candidate. Im not going to vote for someone who is just using a platform to get votes that he really isn't a part of. Not only that but his ideas don't meet the criteria I would need to vote on principle. For instance, Adam Kokesh would be a person for me to vote for. 2020 can't come soon enough
Yeah, Adam might get the anarchist vote, which is pretty impressive.
I took most of your post as talking about lesser of two evils type thinking. Could it be lesser of three evils? Based on what they did as governors, if I had to vote for an actual human being, I'd go for Gary over Clinton or Trump. He has a track record of moving things closer to where I'd like them to be (no government). Is he a "real" libertarian? Nope. Neither am I. It's more about "lesser of evils" thinking. I probably won't end up voting though, unless I go forward with my "no rulers" write in idea.
The lesser of two evils argument I'm making is only because Gary doesn't stand a chance of actually winning. If he was someone I believed in whether I thought he would win or not Id vote for him. If Gary stood a chance I would pick him, but since he doesn't and I don't want Clinton to win most of all, I have to either vote for Trump or throw my vote. I do like your idea of writing in no rulers, but last election when I went to vote there was no write in option at all