: SDF has taken me to task because I will choose the lesser of two evils in November by holding my nose and voting for the Democratic candidate for President (given the two, I prefer Bradley, but I'll be stuck with Gore). This tactic, I'm told, is a sell-out; better I should vote my conscience and pull the lever for a good guy/sure loser like Ralph Nader, even if it means helping George W. Bush take the White House.: In response, I'd like you to consider the following:
: It's November 7, 1991, election eve, and you live in Louisiana. There are two candidates for Governor: the Republican is neo-nazi David Duke; his supporters' chant is "White Pride!" The Democrat is convicted felon, corrupt good ol' boy Edwin Edwards; his supporters' chant is "Vote for the crook, it's important!" That's how it was 9 years ago. Life sometimes demands compromises...or does it?
: So who do you vote for? The greater evil of David Duke, the lesser evil of Edwin Edwards, or a fictious third party candidate: Butterfly Marx, the honorable, socialist, environmentalist, labor organizer who stands for all the right things, but doesn't stand a chance of winning? If the last, you do so knowing that by not voting for Edwards, you increase the odds of an avowed neo-nazi becoming Governor.
: It's a stinking situation, but it's what's out there for real, not the idealistic yet fictitious election we could easily conjure up in this chatroom.
: I hold my nose and vote for Edwards. That's one.
: Your turn.
*Big deal... so you vote for the crook. The real question is, "What do you do so that in four years, you don't have to go through the same exercise in lesser-evilism?" I fear that Democracy is yet one more casualty of so-called 'consumerism.' We seem to think that political choices are something over which we have no control and candidates are merely another corporate offering. It's Coke or New Coke.
But isn't that the whole point of such democratic-oligarchy? To let people think they actually have a choice? That includes the neo-nazi loons out there... throw in an RC cola now and then. In the end, they know everyone will go for the Coke.
We'd better wise-up to the fact that none of this nonsense is going to change unless those of us with nothing to lose and everything to gain by change, change it.
"Cthulu For President: Why Settle For The Lesser Evil?"
