Ralph Nader, I love you, but unless you are able to hijack the media the way front-runners must so that at least fifty percent of America loves you as much as I do, I'm not going to vote for you.
Why? Because, at its best, voting in the USA is an act of strategy, not a perfect expression of values.
Anytime you have a group of people with the same social values who are voting differently for beaurocratic reasons, you have a got yourself a big sad mess. As unstrategic as it seems to me to be voting Green in the presidential elections when the party has not been given the rights to an amount of public exposure that is sufficient to win, I also find it dishearteningly pointless for those of us who did vote Democrat for purely strategic reasons to be directing our anger toward Nader and other Green candidates and the people who support them. From my humble and perhaps naive perspective, I am wonderig why Greens don't focus the bulk of their resources towards changing our election system (clean elections, public funding, instant runoff voting). This is a cause most Americans will get behind, and if we send Green votes to a front runner who is willing to prioritize this, in my opinion that is some pretty heavy incentive for that candidate. And frustrated Democrats, if you really want to see a change, you can help make that happen by understanding the persepctives of third party voters and helping organzing campaigns to unify interests. Separation-inducing attitudes are just as destructive to social justice as "throwing votes away" and plays right into the hands of the corporate elite. Stratification and separation amongst likeminded folks is the oldest trick in the book of tyrannical governments. Don't be an oblivious to you pawnmanship.
Media control is so rampant, that it is my feeling that even Mr John Edwards - who was not exactly the next Malcolm X- was too radical with his insistence on corporate accountability. I remember when all of a sudden his $400 haircut was all the rage. I heard progressives talking about this like it was a crime to humanity. Next thing I know he's out of the race. Very few people, in comparison, seemed to be aware of the time John McCain sang a playful parody of an old fifties tune, inserting his own ingenius lyrics "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran". (According to most Dems I've talked to, even though their not going to support him, McCain's "at least an honest guy", a "straight talker", "better than the other guys" which, by the way, so is my developmentally disabled cousin.) But when Howard Dean squealed in excitement over his campaign, that- like Edwards' haircut- was a deal breaker. It is my hope that people can wise up and use the media for information and do the thinking, do the judging, for yourself!
Why? Because, at its best, voting in the USA is an act of strategy, not a perfect expression of values.
Anytime you have a group of people with the same social values who are voting differently for beaurocratic reasons, you have a got yourself a big sad mess. As unstrategic as it seems to me to be voting Green in the presidential elections when the party has not been given the rights to an amount of public exposure that is sufficient to win, I also find it dishearteningly pointless for those of us who did vote Democrat for purely strategic reasons to be directing our anger toward Nader and other Green candidates and the people who support them. From my humble and perhaps naive perspective, I am wonderig why Greens don't focus the bulk of their resources towards changing our election system (clean elections, public funding, instant runoff voting). This is a cause most Americans will get behind, and if we send Green votes to a front runner who is willing to prioritize this, in my opinion that is some pretty heavy incentive for that candidate. And frustrated Democrats, if you really want to see a change, you can help make that happen by understanding the persepctives of third party voters and helping organzing campaigns to unify interests. Separation-inducing attitudes are just as destructive to social justice as "throwing votes away" and plays right into the hands of the corporate elite. Stratification and separation amongst likeminded folks is the oldest trick in the book of tyrannical governments. Don't be an oblivious to you pawnmanship.
Media control is so rampant, that it is my feeling that even Mr John Edwards - who was not exactly the next Malcolm X- was too radical with his insistence on corporate accountability. I remember when all of a sudden his $400 haircut was all the rage. I heard progressives talking about this like it was a crime to humanity. Next thing I know he's out of the race. Very few people, in comparison, seemed to be aware of the time John McCain sang a playful parody of an old fifties tune, inserting his own ingenius lyrics "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran". (According to most Dems I've talked to, even though their not going to support him, McCain's "at least an honest guy", a "straight talker", "better than the other guys" which, by the way, so is my developmentally disabled cousin.) But when Howard Dean squealed in excitement over his campaign, that- like Edwards' haircut- was a deal breaker. It is my hope that people can wise up and use the media for information and do the thinking, do the judging, for yourself!
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I have simplified this entire debate into one simple statement. I will not vote for the president of the united states in America until the "electoral college" is dismantled and we institute a truly democratic election process.
What happened with G.W is just a reassurance to me that I am right and the system is broken.