So we've got a friend over last night, and she's both very pro-life and very eco-crunchy. Naturally she's a bit frustrated with both major parties, and can't find a third party which meets her specifications either. So she tells us she's found a solution: she' s voting for
John McCain. 'John McCain,' I ask, 'which party's ticket is
he on?' None. He's not even running. She's writing him in. And I wonder aloud why one would waste a trip to the voting booth to write something no one will ever read. She answers that it's 'symbolic.' So I say, well, if you're going to cast a purely symbolic vote, why not just write in 'John Paul II'? 'Well,' she says, 'it's not
purely symbolic. They do keep statistics of write-in candidates, and if the major political players see a significant chunk of the voting populace voluntarily writing in a candidate with a somewhat obscure platform that no other party is meeting, they may try and adjust their own platform, in order to accomodate those voters' views, and so win their votes.' And I reply '........sooooo....Why not just write in 'John Paul II'?