Claiming that "Californians are left with a deeply unsatisfying choice for the U.S. Senate this year," the Chronicle on Sunday refused to throw their support behind Barbara Boxer or Carly Fiorina, claiming that Boxer lacks the effectiveness in advocating the liberal causes the editors advocate and Fiorina stands in the way of those very causes. While the paper's reasoning is flawed and differs greatly from my own, they are right to notice that it is unwise to throw support behind candidates that do not share one's values.
Too often we are told to choose the lesser of two evils and support one of the major party candidates even if neither represent the values we desire in a candidate, but this urging is misguided and down right foolish. All we do when supporting the "lesser of two evils" is reward political parties for running "evil" candidates, create a continued cycle of "evil" candidates in each election, and place "evil" people into office. The lie that one party is better than the other is revealed every time a poor candidate is rewarded with victory; they govern in a way not unlike their opponents and we wonder why things never change. It is philosophy, not party, that truly distinguishes candidates.
If we truly seek to advance liberty we must stop blindly supporting major party candidates if they are not worthy of our support. While we will never find someone we agree with 100% of the time, we must be careful to not quickly compromise our principles. Much of the poor situation we find ourselves in can be linked back to similar compromises in past elections.
Whether it be in primaries or general elections, those of us serious about liberty and a return to a free society must follow the example of the Chronicle--if no one is worthy of our support, let's withhold it.
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