In defense of a 3rd party vote

When you vote for a candidate that you describe as the ‘lesser of two evils’ then by definition you’ve still voted for ‘evil.’ If your candidate’s best attribute is that he’s not the other candidate then you’re settling for less than you deserve.

You’ll never get what you want by voting for what you don’t want. On the contrary, you’ll actually ensure that what you don’t want is the only option that’s ever available to you in the future. Your vote for the lesser-of-two-evils-candidate rewards that candidate and advocates for more of the same next election. When you repeatedly vote for that type of candidate you reinforce the party's belief that their candidate is everything you are looking for in a president. You encourage them to pander to others because your vote can be counted on. You voluntarily make your opinion less important than others'.

The greatest trick the two major parties ever pulled was convincing you that if you don’t vote for candidate A you’re somehow responsible for candidate B winning. I accept no responsibility for candidate B winning. The only people responsible for candidate B winning are those that voted for him. If candidate A’s party needed my vote to win the election then they should have nominated someone that I can vote for.

This idea that you’re throwing your vote away by voting for a 3rd party is a fallacy. Your vote is your voice in this national political landscape. When a few people vote 3rd party they are an anomaly, a few more people and they become an interesting data point, but when enough people do it they become a group that must be taken into consideration next time around. They become a group that must be pandered to, a group that has been heard. I’d argue that unless you’re happy with the status quo you’re throwing your vote away by voting for the same carbon copy candidate that rolls off the party assembly line every 4 years. Speak up! Vote for someone you actually agree with and respect. It will be better for the country in the long run.

Dead Blog

This here is what we call a Dead Blog.

I currently write two other blogs:
Half-Fast, a running blog that is updated sparingly.
Daddy’s Little Tax Credits, was a blog with stories about my kids but it is no more.
I also occasionally write for the Complete Running Network and you can click the link to see an archive of my articles over there.

Scoop of Vanilla was started to give me an outlet to write about things other than running or my kids, but it turns out I really don’t have much to say about any other topics. Therefore I am going to discontinue posting here at Scoop of Vanilla. I will not be deleting the blog, but I doubt that I will be returning to it at any time in the near future. To be honest I’m not even sure why I’m posting this because no one reads this blog, but on the off chance that you managed to find it you should just leave now. You’re the only one here and it’s a long time before the next train comes.

Kids Ruin Everything

For those of you who don't know me I have 2 boys. D is the oldest, he is 4 years old as of this writing and G is 2, which would make him the younger. One of the great things about kids is that they always speak their minds, unfortunately one of the worst things about having kids is that they always speak their minds. My 2 year old, G takes a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to life. He doesn't think twice about anything before he does it or says it, and if I were totally honest I'd have to admit that he probably doesn't even think once about it, let alone twice.

I had a birthday recently and my wife had taken great care to keep my gift a secret from me. The only problem with her plan was that she wasn't able to keep it secret from G. You can't leave a 2 year old at home and go shopping, and the reason isn't because you're worried about the 2 year old it's because you're worried about your house. That kid can do some serious damage in a matter of minutes. To my wife's credit she waited as long as possible to buy my gift and she gave strict instructions and severely threatened G that he was not to tell me what they bought or where it was hidden.

Alas, I came home from work on a Wednesday evening (I would later discover that it was the very same day that they had bought the present) and as soon as I walked in the door G popped his big head around a corner and said "Daddy, Daddy..."
"NO, NO, NO!" D interrupted him. D is smart enough to know that G has been waiting all day to tell me the secret that he has. 2 year olds were not built to keep secrets, they were built to teach you patience and that you're not as smart as you think you are.

After that it became a game. Both boys would take turns telling me "we're not going to tell you what we got for your birthday!" and I would play along. If you know little boys then you know that EVERYTHING is a game. In fact, when I can't get one of them to eat their dinner, or go get ready for bed or pretty much anything, all I have to do is make a game of it:
"Your brother is going to be the first one to get into his PJs (finish his dinner, clean up his toys, etc.) are you going to let him win?" You can get little kids to do anything if you make a game of it, and it has the added benefit of teaching them that it's not how you play the game it's whether you win or lose that makes Daddy happy.

That's my parenting tip for the day - back to the story. Not 30 minutes later we were all heading out to dinner. I grab G and take him out to the car. As I'm buckling him into his car seat he immediately begins with the game again, "Daddy, I'm not going to tell you what we got for your birthday!" This was probably hundredth time I'd heard this in the last 30 minutes and I was sick of playing along so I stop responding to the playful taunts. G, of course, is not done playing the game and in order to entice me back into it he decides he needs to up the ante by revealing a little bit more information. Surely that would draw me back into the game. He decides he's going to reveal the location of the hidden present. The logic is sound, but the execution is lacking. He looks at me with a big smile and says:

"Daddy, I'm not going to tell you that your bike is hidden in my playhouse!"

I smile back at him. "OK, G." The G does not stand for genius.

Here it is

This is the initial post for Scoop of Vanilla. Just trying this thing out. Appropriately, this is a very bland post.