...Angelides, Cardin, Klobuchar, Menendez, Cantwell, or Casey this year
That's right -- I absolutely will not vote for any of those candidates this year. I don't care how desperately we need to take back the Senate, the House, state houses, or other bodies of federal, state, and local government this year. I refuse to vote for any of those candidates this November.
Never mind that refusing to support the duly nominated Democratic candidate in today's political climate is tantamount to supporting the Rethug candidate. I don't care -- I won't vote for any of these candidates no matter how much you beg, plead, scream, curse, or threaten me.
I won't vote for any of them because I don't live in any of their jurisdictions.
I'll tell you who I will vote for, though. I'll vote for Jim Doyle for re-election as governor of Wisconsin. Not because I like him -- I don't. I think he's a tool with grotesquely misplaced priorities, but we can talk about that another time. I will vote for him -- I volunteer for him -- because his opponent, Mark Green, is a Rethug. And not just any Rethug at that; he's a Dumbya clone, though possibly with even fewer socially redeeming qualities.
I'll vote for Herb Kohl for re-election as one of Wisconsin's senators. Not because I like him -- I don't. I'm not sure he really does much of anything in the Senate. He's certainly not as deserving of my respect and support as my other senator, Russ Feingold, who I wish could be cloned 99 times so we could have a Senate of 100 Feingolds. I will vote for Kohl because his opponent, Robert Lorge, is a Rethug. And not just any Rethug at that; his greatest aspiration is to be a rubber stamp to a corrupt administration that enjoys torture, warmongering, and doing everything in its power to enrich the obscenely wealthy at the expense of the poorest and meekest members of our society.
I'll vote for Tammy Baldwin for re-election as the congressional representative from WI-02. I like Tammy.
You don't like the Democratic nominees who hope to represent you? Tough shit. You had your opportunity to replace them in the primary. The deck may have been stacked against you, but you had your chance. You lost.
You now have two choices. You can be an adult, accept your defeat graciously, and support the candidate you don't like because doing so benefits the greater good -- it will help elect Democrats. If you don't like that option, you can refuse to support the Democratic nominee. But in the current political climate, any vote for a candidate other than the Democratic nominee -- including a refusal to vote at all -- must be seen as a net vote for the Rethug nominee.
Support the Democrat, or you are functionally supporting the Rethug. You can vote for the Democrat, even if you don't like him/her, or you can be responsible for helping to elect people who think the Constitution is "quaint" and outdated, who think torture is an American value, who think war is the best first option rather than a last resort, who think a strong economy means that millionaires become billionaires and the rest of us go broke. You can do whatever you can to help restore sanity to the government, or you can keep power in the hands of people who believe that anyone who isn't white, wealthy, male, Christian (of a certain variety), and a Rethug is nothing but cannon fodder to be sent to die needlessly and senselessly in Iraq or a resource to exploit for the benefit of their cronies.
You either believe in American values or you don't. You either believe we're all in this together so we'd best help each other out, or you believe that it's every white, wealthy, male, Christian (of a certain variety) Rethug for himself, and to hell with everyone else.
You can help elect the duly nominated Democrats or you can help cause further damage to our country and the world by whining about your duly nominated candidate's flaws.
But if you're going to whine and moan about how horrible your candidate is -- so horrible indeed that you're willing to let Rethugs win and help BushCo kill us all a little faster -- you can go Cheney yourself. I'm sick of it. You can replace your lousy Democrat the next time around; for now, it's far more important to replace your lousy Rethug. I promise you, no matter how horrible your Democratic candidate may be, your Rethug candidate is worse by several orders of magnitude.
Choose, but choose wisely. Your decision could mean the difference between more years of idiocy, incompetence, corruption, and evil, and the beginning of our long-awaited national recovery. We simply cannot afford to hold out for purity.