Recent events of nominal to no daily importance, have made me feel a need to make something about myself crystal clear... just for the sake of doing it.
I am a socially liberal to libertine, economically pro-labor progressive Democrat. ...And damned proud of it!!
I vote for Democrats.
I donate time, energy, skills and other resources to fielding and supporting my party's candidates, busting myths perpetuated about my party, raising funds for my party and our candidates and serving my party.
If I don't like one of my party's sitting politicians, I see it as a need for us to field a better candidate for that seat in our next primary, not as a reason to vote against everything I am by voting for a conservative.
I chose the Democratic party because it was and remains the best fit for who I already was and who I am, on my own... I don't bend to fit a party mold and I don't bend the party to fit me.
I won't support or vote for any candidate running on any conservative party's ticket and I won't support or vote for any conservative running on my party's ticket. I am not a conservative.
I will not vote for anyone who is too dishonest, too stupid or too wussy to run on the ticket of a party well-suited to his/her politics.
I will not support or vote for any single-issue, narrow-focus or axe-to-grind candidate.
I WILL support and vote for broad-focus liberal/progressive independents and liberal/progressive candidates running on the tickets of parties that are well suited to their politics when my party has failed to field a broad focus liberal/progressive candidate for that seat.
If there is no candidate suitable to my requirements in a candidate -- I abstain from voting in that race.
...And here's a fun fact for those of you who buy into the nauseating spin that the heartland is a wholesome conservative utopia while the west coast and upper north east are raunchy liberal hellholes -- this secular, liberal, progressive Democrat was born, bred and still resides in a small, rural county in America's heartland.
4 comments:
Considering your position on the two major Democratic candidates as you stated it before the primaries (Obama broke his promise, Clinton is too far to the right), will you still abstain from voting for the Democratic candidate in the general election, even if such abstention means McCain wins?
I have trouble reconciling the attitude of "If my candidate doesn't win, I'm voting for the opposition" as being substantially different than "If my party doesn't field what I consider to be a decent candidate, I will take my ball and go home and let the opposition win by default".
Is there a subtlety I'm missing?
My previous post about my positions on the candidates was in relation to choosing the best nominee for my party from those vying for the nomination.
The primary is a very different beast than the general election.
Both Clinton and Obama are broad focus candidates. They are more conservative on some issues than I am -- I am a unique individual, no other person is going to be a dead-on match for my every position.
Meeting my criteria for a vote in November is not the same as being the best possible nominee that I believe my party has to offer. My own first choice of many years, has thus far, chosen not to vie for my (or any) party's nomination for President.
However, to answer the real question... let's say that instead of Barack or Hillary, (who ARE qualified to receive my vote in November, despite the fact that I think we have far better people for the job in the party than any of the primary candidates we had to choose from) we were somehow stuck with Zell Miller as our nominee for the November election.
I don't want Zell Miller to be my President any more or less than I want John McCain to be my President.
I don't want either of them anywhere near the oval office, at all. Period.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no lesser of those two evils... not even by a fraction of a hair's breadth!
Asking me to vote for one of them as a means of not voting for the other is like asking me if I'll eat the steaming pile of dog crap with the cherry on top or the steaming pile of dog crap with the strawberry on top.
It doesn't matter what piece of fruit is perched on top of it, I'm not eating a steaming pile of dog crap.
:)
P.S., The recent events that fueled my desire to post this article were in regards to several upcoming contests (plural,) none of which happened to be the Presidential race.
Nobody has suggested I should vote for McCain.
I have spoken with and overheard many Republicans who intend to abstain from voting in the Presidential race in November, rather than vote for McCain.
It has nothing to do with sour grapes that their primary pick failed to win their party's nomination -- they don't want McCain running their country, particularly not as a representative of their party. ...And "I'm not him/her" isn't a sufficient platform plank to persuade them otherwise.
I've heard more than a few say that, as much as they also don't want Barack or Hillary in the White House, they'd rather sacrifice one four year term, now, through abstention, than let a bad McCain Presidency cost them several terms hence.
So, in other words, the answer to the question in my first paragraph would be... "No." That about right? ;)
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