Long and winding here today, apologies. I want to get this off my chest so I can be done with it. I don't intend to post more in the way of this issue, as I think it has been discussed and we have all drawn our own lines.
I'll be voting in the Washington State primary, for Howard Dean, for numerous reasons:
a) My own integrity. I stood in the street and protested the Iraq war. I stood in the street and protested the PATRIOT act. I stood in the street and protested the appointment of John Ashcroft. On these issues, and others, John Kerry in particular was happy to vote against me, supporting George Bush. I have SOME integrity, Dean started as a movement to take back the Democratic party, and I will not capitulate now and support one of the problematic whores and
feebs who gave me no choice but to stand in the streets. I remember what it was like when Bush had a high approval rating, and due to the political cowardice of Democrats, I had no representation.
b) Dean is the only candidate who has a real reason to run against Bush. Again, these other fellows are all Johnny-Come-Lately when it comes to opposing Bush. They are running to represent ... their own careers. Dean opposed Bush on principles back when it was "unpatriotic" to not do so, and Kerry in particular was voting to authorize the invasion of Iraq, because he is um patriotic or something.
c) The Iraq war vote. Mr. Patriotic Veteran sent a bunch of Americans to Iraq to kill and die in a dirty war. Screw him. I'll hate him for the rest of his filthy life for that.
d) Campaign funding. I know where Howard Dean's money comes from. It comes from people like me. John Kerry, however, is leading the corporate-special-interest and lobbyist donation-receiving pack. He is getting paid off by the same contributors that have corrupting Washington for so long. He is getting paid off by the same mechanism that allows, for example, corporate war profiteering to occur. You have to dance with them that bring ya, and I know that Howard Dean is dancing with me. John Kerry, on the other hand, is dancing with a bunch of corrupt special interest lobbyists who represent any interest but mine.
e) Integrity, this time the candidate's integrity. John Kerry is a worse weasel than Clinton ever was, less honest, and possessing less character. He is on the same level in terms of character and integrity as George Bush himself. I choose a candidate whose public positions do not flap in the breeze.
f) "Electability". I think Howard Dean can and will take Bush to task on controversial problems associated with Bush. I think that John Kerry will bury any controversial issue, and run an Al Gore campaign where he struggles valiantly to look like Bush Lite. That is a losing campaign. A Dean presidential campaign will have meaning. It will not bury issues, and it will rock the boat. A Kerry campaign will be a large sequence of photos of Kerry in military uniform while Kerry struggles to make his position on every issue that his campaign is willing to bring up a 90% agreement with George Bush, counting on the 10% disagreement to represent the "difference" between the two candidacies. He'll get steamrolled.
After the primary, I may change my involvement. I think there are a number of sensible public figures, for example, Kristof, who have taken a look at the tawdry, pathetic mess that is US national politics at this point, and who have decided to bow out for the time being because of what they see. In particular, if Kerry gets the nomination, I am simply tuning out the campaign as I think it is a foregone conclusion that Kerry will ultimately lose and Bush will be finally elected, and I don't want to watch the sad, tawdry machinations of Kerry's defeat while trying to work for his campaign or some associated organization as a volunteer. I have grown fed up with the pathetic aspect of Democratic politics - the tendency of these slimy establishment insiders to ultimately bury any real hope of a liberal movement by demanding that they remain in a position of power over the party. I don't want to watch liberalism get sunk again by the Democratic party. I also don't want to participate in yet another vapid Democratic campaign.
So I'll go the Kristof route, and find something else hopeful and positive and important to do with myself after the primary vote.