THE "WASTED" VOTE

Gary Nolan - a candidate for president from the Libertarian Party - has rationalized the answer for those who call votes for a third-party"wasted". The best way to slow down government waste is to slow down spending, and the best way for that to be done right now is to have "gridlock" in Congress. How do you achieve gridlock? The Democrats must win the White House, or win a majority in either the Senate or House.

The conventional wisdom is that votes for people and parties who favor smaller government would otherwise be cast for Republicans. Fine - then for federal offices, that will help the Democrats and in turn will facilitate gridlock. At this point, that should be okay with us, because Republicans, who for years have represented themselves as proponents of smaller government, have lost any pretense of being true fiscal conservatives, judging by the practices of the Bush Administration. All that's left is their intrusive moral initiatives, which at their most dangerous threaten our civil liberties. Anything that could help to impede the rubber stamping of bills through a Republican House, a Republican Senate, and a Republican White House would be welcome.

And on top of that, every vote for third parties - especially the Personal Choice and Libertarian parties - sends a specific message, because it's very clear what we stand for - liberty and freedom for real, and for ALL.