Follow the Leader Winner

On the 230th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I want to talk about the choices we are scared to make...

“You’ve got a lotta nerve, sayin’ you’re my friend.
You just wanna be on the side that’s winnin.”
Bob Dylan, Positively 4th Street

One of the oldest political campaign tricks, the “bandwagon” effect, is something we learned about in our ninth-grade civics classes, along with “testimonials” and “glittering generalities.” Apparently a lot of us were sleeping when that chapter was studied. Still alive and even well today is the notion you’re wasting your vote unless you climb aboard the winning team express, the projected winner in the race. You’ve got to pick "the right candidate" and "back the winner." Frank Sinatra sang, to the tune of “High Hopes,” back on the 1960 campaign trail, “Everybody’s voting for Jack (Kennedy)... cause they know he’s on the right track.” This bandwagon effect is used to sucker you into thinking your guy is going to lose so why bother? It's a cheap psychological plot to get you to give up and give in.

I think voters should pick from their heart... and from their gut. They should pick the candidate they think can do the best job regardless of the deck stacked against them- in fact, I think it's all the more important when the system seems so heavily titled toward the rich and the powerful for the "little guys" to band together and take a stand. After all, It's not up to us to decide who's "going" to win. Let the pundits play that game, it's only up to us to pick who we want and let the chips fall where they may. I'm tired of people telling me that I have to go with one of the "approved" choices and that anything else is a waste of my vote. My vote is only wasted if I don't use it or I listen to others who try to talk me out of who I feel in my heart I should support.

This debate over "wasted" votes needs to be applied to the 87th House District Republican primary Aug. 8. The chatter seems to be that some candidates "don't have a chance." It's said that certain candidates haven't raised enough money from fat cat donors, that they don't look the part of slick politician or they haven't made enough back room deals with power players and PACs to stand a chance. Therefore, anyone supporting that candidate is doomed to failure and humiliation and their vote or money would be better used "backing a winner." This is yet more nonsense designed to get you to jump on the bandwagon of one the "chosen" candidates who are simply the guys willing to borrow the most money from the bank and grease enough palms and kiss enough babies to become part of the Sausage Machine in Lansing that churns out ever more putrid legislation that is slowly choking off your freedom and suffocating the democracy we were entrusted by our Founding Fathers to protect.

Now, let's pretend "Candidate A" really "doesn't have a chance of winning." In a secret ballot there is no way anyone will know who you voted for, so the chances you'll be publicly called on the carpet for "supporting the wrong guy" is nil. There's also little chance that your one vote is going to tip the balance for "Candidate B or C," so why not just go for who you'd like to represent you since you only get one chance to have your say- the winner will surely be declared in the Republican primary unless hell freezes over between August 9 and November 7. In the end, if enough people join you in voting with their heart, you may have helped elect the next State Rep. but if not, you certainly didn't "waste" your vote.

The candidate you or I support may end up losing, but that's not because it was pre-ordained by God or "fixed" in Lansing (or even Portland). It would be because a plurality of voters went for one of the other candidates in the race. So be it. But in a multi-candidate primary anything can happen and whoever wins will have surely gotten through without grabbing the majority of the vote so this is your best chance to influence who will be our next State Representative. Choose wisely but don't let anyone else tell you that person can't win so don't bother. Your vote is sacred and it belongs to no one else. On August 8 I will vote with my heart and with my gut — I will support the candidate I WANT to WIN. And if he loses, it won't be because I chickened out and went with the lemmings who flocked to the guy with the whitest teeth, the most expensive haircut or the deepest pockets.

The Founding Fathers didn't listen to the conventional wisdom that suggested no one dared to fight against the most powerful empire in the world. Surely, many of the Redcoats were the timid little weasels that infect our local politics who run around "backing the winner" so they can get their appointments and be "part of the winning team." Exactly 230 years ago this country was founded on the principle that sometimes enough is enough and you have to stand up and declare loudly that you're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. I think it's time for all of us to stand up and jump off the bandwagon. I think it's time for some fireworks!