[Peace-discuss] Quit the Party

[John W.]

At 08:20 PM 9/28/2007, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:

>Uh.... that's how we got George W Bush. Dems aren't great (understatement) 
>but no evidence Gore was poised to attack Iraq. Voting our conscience 
>instead of the lesser of two evils doesn't affect the average independent 
>voter all that much, but it sure as hell affects the rest of the world, 
>foreign and domestic.
>
>Jenifer

Good Lord, I was just asking a question about how primaries work.  But I 
hope we're not disinterring that old tired argument about third parties 
being "spoilers".

We got George W. Bush - twice - because of massive election fraud by 
Republicans, pure and simple - Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 - which 
went unchallenged by pusillanimous Democratic contenders and which was 
upheld (in 2000) by the reactionary Rehnquist-dominated Supreme Court.

Third-party challengers - IF they're allowed to participate in the election 
process, for God's sake - serve many useful purposes, among them to force 
Democrats to take stronger stands on issues than they might otherwise.

Naw...I refuse to take responsibility for Dubya's "victory".  If I voted 
for Nader I'm a bad guy.  If I stayed home and didn't vote at all I'm a bad 
guy.  I'm not allowed to have a conscience; without even knowing the 
results in advance, I'm expected to vote for "the lesser of two 
evils".  Bullshit.

Just out of curiosity, though:  Who, pray, is the "lesser of two evils" 
this time?



>"John W." <jbw292002 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>At 02:33 PM 9/28/2007, Matt Reichel wrote:
>
> >http://counterpunch.org/lindorff09272007.html
> >
> >Dave Lindorff suggests a mass escape from the Democratic party as an
> >organizing tactic between now and the 2008 election. I couldn't agree
> >more: never has it been as pressing for people to quit the Other Party of
> >neo-liberalism and American imperialism in favor of a new third party
> >movement which espouses the needs of workers, students, academics and
> >social movement activists.
> >
> >Note: Illinois has OPEN Primaries!! Many of you are probably registered as
> >Democrats for one reason or another, and you would lose NOTHING by
> >canceling your registration as a Democrat and re-registering as an
> >independent. You could still vote for Kucinich or Gravel in the primaries!
> >You could even get a Republican ballot and vote for Ron Paul if you so 
> please!
> >
> >-
> >mer
>
>
>I didn't know you had to REGISTER as anything. I thought you just went
>into the primary and requested a ballot of your choice....which can now
>include a Green Party ballot.
>
>John Wason
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