I am relatively new here, but have seen enough of Daily Kos to know to tread gingerly on certain matters, namely advocating anything but favored (read centrist) candidates and oh-so-slightly-left-of-center positions. I often wonder—and this question is genuine and I can never seem to get a straight answer—is this a progressive blog or is it meant to be a space to promote favored establishment Democrats? I really like writing here; some of my diaries have been viewed and shared thousands of times and the exposure helps me raise awareness of critical issues often ignored or underreported by the corporate mainstream media. And so I proceed with caution.
I am a true progressive. As such, I find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to cast my vote for any political candidate who supports an endless war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, brutal dictators in some of the world’s most repressive nations, environmentally destructive practices and corporations, the death penalty or a number of other troubling things. I don’t see how a true progressive could oppose the type of health care system that exists in every other developed nation on Earth, and plenty of developing ones too. Or fail to call for the prosecution of corporate criminals responsible for the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—Iceland jailed its banksters.
This shouldn’t be a controversial statement. Everyone who identifies as a progressive should agree with every word of the previous paragraph. But somehow this raises eyebrows and ire amongst my fellow Kossacks. Ask yourself, why?
It is highly unlikely that I will be voting for any major-party candidate come November. I know, I know, Supreme Court and all that. And I know that arguing that there’s slim difference between the two major parties will not be smiled upon here, although it is as true for some of the biggest problems with America today—imperialism and corporatism being two huge ones that affect nearly every man, woman and child on Earth—as it is inaccurate for others, namely, just about every imaginable domestic social issue.
And so, who to vote for? There is a candidate running who wants to create “deep system change, moving from the greed and exploitation of corporate capitalism to a human-centered economy that puts people, planet and peace over profit.” Who “offers direct answers to the economic, social, and ecological crises brought on by both corporate political parties.”
How, and why—and here’s where the comments will get interesting—would anyone who identifies as a progressive oppose this? I already know what most of you will say, and it involves keeping a certain egomaniacal misogynist xenophobe out of the White House. A laudable, even imperative, objective indeed. But can humanity really afford the “lesser-of-two-evils” incrementalist approach at this, the eleventh hour for our planet?
By the way, the candidate I am talking about isn’t Bernie Sanders, as you already know by the title of this diary. It’s Jill Stein. I voted for, and endorsed, her in 2012. I vowed I would not repeat that move in 2016, believing that participation in a rigged system is complicity in its crimes. Before you roll your eyes, remember that the Democratic party mercilessly persecuted Ralph Nader’s 2004 campaign, suing to keep him off the ballot in 18 states because they falsely scapegoated him, and not a rigged electoral system and partisan Supreme Court, for George W. Bush’s 2000 “victory.” Not very democratic of them at all, was that?
But I digress—I am stopping short of endorsing Jill Stein here, because 1- I am not sure I will vote for her, and 2- I have seen what happens on this site when Kossacks post diaries critical of Hillary Clinton. If advocating for Bernie Sanders has resulted in rabid wrath and threats of banishment, what would happen to me if I did endorse Stein? If I did, it would just be a single diary—it is clear to me that this isn’t the space for what many of you would call “far-left” advocacy. But if I did, just once, how would it be received? I will ask again: Is this a blog dedicated to progressive advocacy and education, or to Democrat victory über alles?
Bracing myself…