I could justify not voting on "who cares?" grounds or on "it won't make any difference" grounds.
I could also justify voting on Rothbardian "defensive" grounds (choose the least bad slave overseer since you're going to be getting one of those whether you like it or not) and on "send a message" grounds. In a particularly close election, I could justify it on "maybe it will make the difference" grounds.
It's pretty much a toss-up.
So, let's have a look at the race for Florida governor. Should I vote? If so, who should I vote for (or against)?
As I've pointed out elsewhere, the two "major party" candidates on my ballot -- Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Charlie Crist -- are "both swamp creatures, political careerists, tax parasites who’ve spent their entire adult lives either on, or trying to get on, government payrolls." There's absolutely nothing whatsoever that would justify a vote for either one of them.
That said, if the polls had the election within a single percentage point, I might consider choosing Crist as my vote against DeSantis. Not because I think Crist would be a better governor, but because losing this election would effectively take DeSantis out of the running for president in 2024 or 2028. If he can't get re-elected in his own state, he's just not national material. And I do not want a President Ron DeSantis.
What do the polls say? FiveThirtyEight's average has DeSantis up by 6.2%.
That could change (or the polling could be off due to sampling issues) as Latino voters whose parents fled Cuba or Venezuela take note of his idiotic "fly Venezuelan immigrants from Texas to Massachusetts to OWN THE LIBS" stunt.
But for the moment, the chances of my vote affecting the outcome between them are as low as is usual in large elections, which is to say effectively zero. I don't have to vote "for" Crist on the off possibility that doing so will let me OWN DESANTIS.
Who else do we have?
Carmen Jackie Gimenez lists a bunch of credentials and embeds Instagram and Twitter feeds on her campaign's "about" page, but there's no issues page. She seems like she may be reasonably good on immigration freedom and immigrant rights. And she's apparently endorsed by Jesus, which I'd expect to be bigger news than it is. But I'm just not getting the vibe that she offers much in terms of "defensive," "send a message," or "make a difference" grounds.
Other than write-in candidates, that leaves Libertarian candidate Hector Roos.
On one hand, he seems a little too closely affiliated with the Republican PAC that recently took over both the Libertarian Party of Florida and the Libertarian National Committee for my taste. And his background looks a little shady.
On the other hand, his campaign web site, minimal as it is, says the right things. And I suspect that the Mises PAC hasn't yet succeeded in its goal of reframing the Libertarian Party's message into "we're even more stupid and evil than the Trumpists, you should vote Republican" such that a vote for Roos would "send that message."
So, if I vote at all, and if the election doesn't turn into a 1% cliffhanger by the time I do, I'll be voting for Roos.
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