What’s going to be different on November 3?
It’s anybody’s guess. But if you believe the polls most likely Andrew Cuomo will be the next Governor. Depending on the poll he is burying Paladino by a margin of between 15 to 24 %. That means taxes are going up. State spending is not going down. Sheldon Silver will still be running New York. New York will remain among the highest taxed states with the worst environment for business and with the most dysfunctional State government.
You could still vote for Paladino hoping he will somehow pull it out. Then you will have a Governor who supports eminent domain, gives money to Hillary Clinton, who thinks the First and Fourteenth Amendments are only for the majority and who won’t be able to gets his tax cuts past Sheldon Silver. Given a choice between Cuomo and Paladino I’ll take the hemlock.
Fortunately that isn’t the choice facing voters this November. There seven candidates on the ballot. There are several single issue candidates with no national presence or history. Votes for those candidates could send an important message if you happen to feel for example, rent control or legalizing pot is the most important issue.
But you can also vote for candidates from parties with a major national presence and decades of history, well developed principles and reasonably well understood positions on the whole range of issues facing New Yorkers and all Americans.
Of course I am talking about the Libertarian Party and the Green Party. Let’s say you are pro-war, anti-free speech, anti-private property and pro-corporate welfare. Then you could choose either Cuomo or Paladino. You would probably make the choice between the two based on social issues such as marriage equality – oops sorry neither is a real supporter of marriage equality. What about ending the drug-war – whoops that would be two thumbs down. Are either of these guys really going to change anything? If you really believe in personal freedom, those of you on the left usually call it civil liberties – Andrew and Carl aren’t really good options.
Or you could wake up on November 3rd knowing that there would be two choices on the ballot for the next four years that represented real personal freedom and civil liberties but between the two offer a real choice on economic issues. That means you removed the biggest obstacle for candidates with new and different ideas and fresh perspectives on how to solve the problems caused by the failed Democrat and Republican ideas. That means the Democrats and Republicans will actually have to answer questions about why taxes are so high, why business is so bad, why the government decides who can get married and what you can eat and smoke.
But that won’t happen if voters make their choice out of fear and short term thinking. It will only happen if at least 50,000 New Yorkers (for each party) vote their hopes to leave behind a New York buried in corruption and owned by the welfare/warfare state and instead look forward to a future where New Yorkers can make informed decisions from among a real variety of ideas and choices.