Reason magazine has asked various contributors to disclose who they’re voting for and why, as well as who they voted for last time around, what their most embarrassing vote was, and who their all-time favorite president is.
Samples:
2004 vote: I will probably vote for Badnarik, the Libertarian Party candidate. Both of the major-party candidates brazenly flaunt their contempt for the U.S. Constitution. Regardless of who wins in November, the U.S. likely will have a lousy president for the next four years.
2000 vote: I abstained.
Most embarrassing vote: I voted for Gerald Ford in 1976. He was not that embarrassing, compared to Jimmy Carter. And compared to George W. Bush, Ford was verbally graceful.
Favorite president: It might be a coin toss between Washington and Jefferson.
Washington set a magnificent example of self-restraint, protecting the new nation from both his own power lust and unnecessary wars (despite foolish popular demands). Jefferson masterfully reined in the federal government from the tyrannical Alien and Sedition Act persecutions that John Adams launched.
2004 vote: I am a principled nonvoter. If I were forced to vote at gunpoint, I’d pick the Libertarian Party’s Michael Badnarik, whose views on the proper role of government most closely resemble mine.
2000 vote: I did not vote. Those who vote have no right to complain.
Most embarrassing vote: I’ve been saved the embarrassment of ever having to feel any sense of responsibility, of even the smallest size, for the actions of any politician.
Favorite president: In their roles as president, I can’t be an enthusiastic fan of any of them, but for his role in crafting the Constitution, a document that held some (unrealized) promise to limit government powers, James Madison.
2004 vote: I’m not voting for anyone at the top of the ticket. I can’t vote for Bush, who supports Ashcroft’s various “revisions” to the Bill of Rights, since our liberties are what we’re supposed to be fighting for. As for Kerry, I think he’s an empty suit: How much time did he give his years in the Senate in his convention speech, about 40 seconds?
2000 vote: I voted for Nader last time. But he wants to pull the troops out of Iraq, which would lead to a state of nature like Thomas Hobbes had; it would be disastrous. He’s also become part of the bash-Israel crowd, and to get on ballots he’s been cooperating with Lenora Fulani, who has been accused of harboring anti-Semitic biases.
Most embarrassing vote: Well, I didn’t mind voting for Nader in 2000, because Gore had a whole series of empty suits during that campaign, and I didn’t think much of Bush either. I can’t think of any votes I’m particularly embarrassed about.
Favorite president: FDR. He could have done much more to help the victims of the Holocaust, but he did act decisively (if trickily) to take us into the war, which was essential. Otherwise we’d all be speaking German. And as Cass Sunstein has pointed out, FDR was the one who laid out a “second bill of rights,” with economic freedoms like a right to decent housing.
2004 vote: George W. Bush, because I don’t want Johnnie Cochran on the Supreme Court.
2000 vote: George W. Bush. (I always vote Republican because Republicans have fewer ideas. Although, in the case of George W., not fewer enough.)
Most embarrassing vote: A 1968 write-in for “Chairman Meow,” my girlfriend’s cat. It seemed very funny at the time. As I mentioned, this was 1968.
Favorite president: Calvin Coolidge — why say more?
Steven Pinker
2004 vote: Kerry. The reason is reason: Bush uses too little of it. In the war on terror, his administration stints on loose-nuke surveillance while confiscating nail clippers and issuing color-coded duct tape advisories. His restrictions on stem cell research are incoherent, his dismissal of possible climate change inexcusable.
2000 vote: Gore, with misgivings.Most embarrassing vote: I left Canada shortly after turning 18 and became a U.S. citizen only recently, so I haven’t voted enough to be too embarrassed yet.
Favorite president: James Madison, for articulating the basis for democracy in terms of the nature of human nature.
A Thinking Reed 
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