So today I'm worked up about the whole idea of being practical or realistic when you vote. It's spawned by reading of some guy in America who, in the Democratic primaries, supports Kerry but has decided to give his endorsement and vote to Dean. Why? Because he thinks Dean will win.

Now, no one could accuse me of supporting either Dean or Kerry, but this kind of "rationale" has been going on for a long time, and it's ridiculous. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Every election, you see it. "Oh, I won't vote for X, because he won't win, even though I agree with him in every way. I'll vote for Y, because he'll win, even though I don't agree with him." Hello?! What do you think, you'll get a certificate for voting for the guy who ends up winning? No. Do you think you'll get an invitation to a party? No. What you'll end with is being ruled by someone you don't like. And let me tell you something, if you and all the other people who think like that voted for the person you prefered, you might actually get them into power.

To tell you the truth, I don't much care who you vote for, as long as you do one thing: vote for the person or party who you agree with most. Not the one you think is going to win. In America, maybe that'll be Kerry, maybe Dean, maybe Kucinich, maybe Bush. In the UK, maybe that'll be Labour or the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats or the Greens or the Socialist Alliance. It doesn't matter. For democracy to have any meaning, it just has to be the one who represents most closely your opinion, not the way the herd of sheep happen to be drifting.