General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEither Barack Obama will win, or the Republican nominee will.
One of those two people will be President of the United States this time next year. Not voting for the candidate of those two who best represents your views is, by definition, helping the other. It's really that simple. One can complain about it, demand an alternative, rail about how it violates your democratic rights to have to choose between imperfect options, but in the end it comes down to two main branches of political philosophy in this country. One that's based on a left-leaning attitude of fostering responsibility, social democracy, and equality, and one that's based on a right-wing attitude of personal irresponsibility, social darwinism, and exploitation.
Either you're helping the one that best represents our shared values, or you're not. Inaction is, in and of itself, an action. You don't have to like that for it to remain the truth. And not getting the three years I would have liked to see in a perfect world doesn't mean I'm not going to do everything I possibly can to reelect Barack Obama and to elect as many other Democrats as I possibly can this year. Because even if you're angry or disappointed, the fact still remains that there is a world of difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy.
Republicans are, have been, and will continue to be the latter. And for them to win, and continue with the political version of mass arson that is their agenda, they need people to ignore that simple fact, as well as forgetting all that's been accomplished in the last three years.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,308 posts)CakeGrrl
(10,611 posts)But beware Darcy Richardson!
...or should I say beware those who will be convinced to give him their vote when the craziest, most hateful GOP in my voting lifetime is trying to take over?
redqueen
(115,096 posts)Still.
I'm all for third-party building, but you don't start building at the top. First you lay the foundation.
Number23
(24,544 posts)TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Or some other system other than first-past-the-post, so that third parties are not damaging the causes they claim to believe in.
redqueen
(115,096 posts)I'm not sure. I thought they did...
TheWraith
(24,331 posts)Canada still has a first-past-the-post system much as we do. Albeit applied to a parliamentary government, so a little more third-party-friendly than the US system. But the system they do have is arguably why the Conservatives have been in control for some years, with splitting and disagreements between the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party, the two left-leaning groups.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)banned from Kos
(4,017 posts)a campaign against his position here!
A subtle little suggestion? Yeah! C'mon Pres - lighten up on the MJ, dude!
Whisp
(24,096 posts)some people need a good kick in the pants to get their brains working. Denigrating Obama and the Dems is aiding and abetting the GOP Scum Party, no way around that one.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)it has been obvious for a long time that some of the criticisms of the administration have nothing to with Obama. They're simply continuations of the long-running anti-Democratic Party screeds.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)We will get to see the list of ignored personal preferences and policies not passed to personal levels of satifaction. Those disappointments will be used as justification for their attempts to hand this election to a Rep....in 3-2-1....go!
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Yes, even though the outcomes are the same in so many cases, there's a difference there somewhere. I've asked the survivors at Haditha, the inmates at Guantanamo, the nameless, faceless dead and tortured at our proxy sites, the victims of drone attacks, the poor, the naked, the hungry and the homeless how much different their lot in life is. None of them can proffer an answer, but I am assured that as miserable as they are, things are ever so rosy! I wrestle with doubt, and remember a quaint old document, but the true Defenders of the Faith are here to assure me that while I may be angry or disappointed, I am never to question. And so it goes.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Yes, even though the outcomes are the same in so many cases, there's a difference there somewhere."
...one difference that makes a "world of difference," especially when it comes to life.
We still have over 30 million Americans who cannot see a doctor when they are sick. According to this Harvard study, adjusting for gender, race, smoking, weight, and just about everything else that you can think of, in any given year, the uninsured are 40% more likely to die than the insured are. That results in 44,789 additional deaths in America each year. All of which are avoidable.
This is more than twice the number of homicides in America.
It is more than ten times the number of deaths on 9/11. And it happens every year.
Do you think that we should solve this problem? I do.
And the Democratic Party does...I see one party taking on the special interests and enacting laws to keep Americans alive, and assure that you can see a doctor when you are sick. Like in every other industrialized country in the world.
<...>
You can call me partisan, if you want. But I see one partys leadership trying hard to solve this nations problems. And the other partys leadership showing its true colors. They are callous sellouts. Always have been, always will be.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1/20/937697/-What-I-Didnt-Hear
Contrast: http://www.democraticunderground.com/100288476
rustydog
(9,186 posts)99Forever
(14,524 posts)... some people have the audacity to actually make up their own minds and then vote their conscience.
How dare they?