As conservatives, every time we vote “strategically” for the establishment parties, we reinforce their conduct of not holding firm to absolutes, but tragically give them tacit permission to concede the moral spectrum, inch by inch, until we all arrive at a point where there are no more inches to concede and the open air, rather than solid ground, is what society is standing on. (Believe me, if FCP candidates were to receive even a mere 20% of socially conservative voters alone during the last election, the political establishment would take notice and things would begin to change drastically.)
So, why is this important to know? For the simple reason that preaching to the converted on issues which they already know to be sound and true should not be our only, or even principle, focus. Our focus should be to convince “strategic voters” that their voting conduct is actually hastening the demise of our society because if we
a) don’t recognize that there are non-negotiable issues
and
b) don’t stand on them when the time comes and call upon politicians to take notice,
in due time we won’t be standing at all. And it takes one voter at a time to concern themselves about their own fundamental beliefs about themselves and about how they believe society should be run instead of worrying what the herd is doing.
Voting with the herd only means hastening the stampede off of the cliff.
There is a time and a place for strategic voting.
The problem is when you vote strategically in every election, always for the lesser of two evils rather than demanding what you really want from politicians.
Your "lesser evil" vote has an opportunity cost: that of not advancing the greater good.
Has voting for the lesser evil really stopped moral evil in Canada? Maybe it's delayed it by five or ten years. Remember the Liberal government voted in favour of marriage in 1999. That didn't last long.
If evil is not abated by your strategic voting, you might as well vote for what you actually want. Otherwise what's the point of voting? What's the point of democracy?
