Who's getting your vote? reason's revealing presidential poll

Reason, Nov, 2004

Favorite president: Richard Nixon, who has done more in my lifetime than any other U.S. pol to discredit the idea that government should wield massive and unexamined power over citizens.

MIKE GODWIN

Contributing Editor Godwin is legal director of Public Knowledge.

2004 vote: Kerry. Let's put it this way: After four years of Bush, the Republican Party has become an example of a political machine out of control. Everything they used to decry--reckless foreign intervention, fiscal irresponsibility, deficit spending--they now represent. You don't have to love Kerry or the Democrats to think it's time for a change. Worst case, at least we'd get divided government for four years.

2000 vote: Gore, only because as a Texan I already had strong reservations about George W. Bush.

Most embarrassing vote: Not a one.

Favorite president: I have a lot of fondness for Theodore Roosevelt: In him you had a strong, articulate president who never thought he lost manhood points by being pro-environment. I also like Eisenhower; he presided over a strong American response to a very polarized East-West world.

NAT HENTOFF

Hentoff, a nationally syndicated columnist, writes regularly for both the Village Voice and The Washington Times. An expanded paperback edition of his book The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance (Seven Stories Press) will be released this fall.

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.

ROBERT HIGGS

Higgs is a senior fellow in political economy at the Independent Institute and author, most recently, of Against Leviathan (Independent Institute).

2004 vote: I never vote. I don't wish to soil my hands.

2000 vote: Had I been forced to cast a ballot for president in the 2000 election, I might have died of septicemic disgust.