UPDATED: When do we get sick and tired of the LOTE?
Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 11:09:47 AM PDT
By the way, Buhdydharma says it better than I do, so read him saying it.
When do we get sick and tired of the Lesser of Two Evils?
I've read that in various comments on various issues in the last week or two, and I want to pose a follow-up question: When do we get sick and tired of getting sick and tired of the Lesser of Two Evils? And start working on doing something about it?
July of Election Year will always being the same vote for the lesser of two evils unless work has been put into building a movement during the year before the election year to change the rules of the game.
The work to explicitly primary DINO's starts mid-November this year ... and implicitly starts now, in parallel with supporting the most progressive House and Senate Challengers that you can find this cycle.
The work for second preference voting with an instant run-off starts now.
So, well, we got one of the two main centrist candidates as the nominee. Like that is a surprise. And he turns out to not be anywhere near as progressive as he was being sold by some of (h/t MB) his partisans on the Daily Kos. Like that is a surprise.
OTOH, Sen. Obama has some good policies, and McCain sucks across the board ... its mostly the contrast to the glowing progressive picture painted of Obama last winter by some of his supporters (h/t MB) that generates outrage when Sen. Obama comes out and points out that his position has not shifted on things like gun control or FISA.
If you want to vent about that, try venting on the numberless AOL comment threads dominated by right wingers, where by attacking Obama for not being progressive enough, you help his chances for victory in the fall.
And why help the LOTE win in the fall? Well, they have us over a barrel in terms of voting for the lesser of two evils, but really that does not mean anything except what you do when you go into the voting booth in early November.
Between then and now, work for the most progressive State Legislatures, House and Senate we can possibly achieve, and then mid-November get back to work to do an even better job in 2010. Work on building a movement that can hold a Democrat to task and at the same time get Republicans unelected.
But for goodness sake ... that's in parallel to getting the opponent we want in the White House, rather than John McCain. Being disappointed in the real world Obama falling short of the carboard cut-out of Obama that was created by some of (h/t MB) his supporters on the Daily Kos does not mean voting for the continued descent of the US into fascism ... it means working that much harder to get as many progressive elected at as many levels of government as possible.
And if you feel on election night that you helped just one progressive get over the line to victory, that feeling will be a beautiful feeling. And like the link in the signature says, as long as its beautiful, its fine.
Update from the comments
Joe Barrow of Athens (which was gerrymandered out of the district, GA-12) faces a proper and respectable challenge from Regina Thomas of Savannah (which is still in it). She is black and the district is 44% black (Democratic primary voters are usually 70% black); Barrow is white. He has been ranked as the 234th most progressive member of the 235-member House Democratic caucus. We can do this.
Here's somewhere to focus on positive action right now, to get warmed up for 2010. H/t ge0rge.
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