The Lesser of Two Evils

Renee is a college freshman, and she is finally old enough to vote in national elections. the new responsibility looming, she has been doing some research on the candidates to decide who best represents her as a leader. Both of her parents are staunch democrats, but Renee doesn’t agree with many of the decisions that the party has made when its been in power. Still, she doesn’t feel represented by the decisions and promises made by Republican leaders, either. Renee has begun to look into a third party candidate who makes promises that she is excited to support and whose ideology, surprisingly, matches her own . Renee brings this up with her friends. She is close with people on both sides of the partisan spectrum, many of which have seemed to be frustrated with the candidates who represent their specific party. To her surprise, Renee is criticized by many of her peers. They believe that voting for a third party candidate is a “waste of a vote” and is counter productive during an election that they insist is the most important one in decades. Many, regardless of affiliation, offer that perhaps voting third party is something to try when less hangs in the balance of the election. Renee is frustrated by her friends response. She remembers the election four years previous and her parents made similar claims about that election being similarly vital. She doubts that there will ever be a time where the stakes don’t feel high when the country’s leadership is in question. At the same time, she believes in the importance of being an active member in the democratic process and she doesn’t want her voice to be wasted. Her friends argue that if her vote could go towards a candidate with a greater chance of success, to vote otherwise is inadvertently supporting the other side. There are real and important ethical questions around the policies of each candidate, and Renee worries that to support one or the other, even passively, might implicate her in the decisions that the future president might make.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.Does Renee have an ethical obligation to put her vote behind a candidate that has a greater chance of winning in the election in order to help ensure that morally objectionable policy doesn’t get enacted?

2.Some voters choose to forego voting altogether as a form of civil protest. Is there something wrong with choosing not to vote? How does this relate to the decision to vote third party?

3.If Renee decides to vote in a way that is consistent with the two party system, does she have a moral obligation to make her political voice heard in other ways that more accurately represent her actual beliefs?

4.Is there anything wrong with being inauthentic for the sake of practicality?