So assorted firebaggers and all-around curmudgeons are upset that our two party system means that any vote not for Obama is a vote for an insane Republican. It appears that their anger is with arithmetic. Any first-past-the-goal electoral system with a strong executive elected by popular vote (well, close enough in the case of the USA) will naturally devolve into a two-party system over time via simple arithmetic — if it takes 50%+1 votes to absolutely *guarantee* that your candidate becomes President, clearly the only way to guarantee that is a coalition of what would be multiple smaller parties in a parliamentary system into one big party that can obtain 50%+1 votes. So you can blame our founding fathers, who wanted to make George Washington our King but George Washington didn’t want to be king so they got him to grudgingly accede to being an elected President for four years at a stretch, for the current situation. If not for that desire for an imperial Presidency with George Washington as President, we likely would have a parliamentary democracy like most Western democracies and not be in this situation (though parliamentary democracies do tend to devolve to two major parties and a few smaller ones over time, unless proportional representation is instituted, which causes its *own* problems).
Regarding Obama, I didn’t want him to be the Democratic nominee in the first place because he was clearly the most conservative of the Democrats in the race and the last thing America needed was eight more years of conservative rule in a time of economic hardship. But look. Teddy Kennedy thought primarying Jimmy Carter would be a good idea in 1980. If he didn’t win the nomination, at least he could force Carter leftward. Well, that turned out well — Teddy ended up helping elect Ronald Reagan and helped bring in thirty years of disastrous Republican rule of America. Carter wasn’t a particularly good President, and neither is Obama, but still. Huckleberry the Christian Taliban? T-paw? Michelle Bachman? Caribou Barbie? A man who wears magic undies? You *really* think one of that gang of clowns, goons, cretins, and all around creepy people would make a better President than Obama?
This is turning out to be another one of those McCain-Obama elections where I held my nose and voted for the sane conservative vs. the insane radical lunatic moron (and senile sidekick). I’m certainly not sending any cash Obama’s way. But I’m not insane, and I’m *not* going to vote for one of the insane clown posse that is the Republican Party — and the math says that any vote that’s not for Obama is effectively a vote for the Republican candidate. Firebaggers may rail about the laws of arithmetic, but they are what they are, pi is the infinite series starting at 3.1415 regardless of how much they wish it were something clean and simple like “3″.
- Badtux the Mathematics Penguin
Unless a strong (D) from the left (like Grayson (FL)) steps up to challenge Obama (better chance of me getting hit by lightning), I'll also hold my nose and give O my vote - but not my money or time.
ReplyDeleteIf the voting public (versus those who can, but don't vote) finally understands who is really proposing 'death panels', the 'end to medicare', and 'getting rid of social security' -- and then votes them out of office in 2012 will I have any hope that the 1% doesn't have a death grasp on the nation yet -- otherwise, WASF.
Shorter Marc.
ReplyDeleteWASF,
JzB
Yes, I could replace every post I've made for the past six years (with the exception of the music ones) with the acronym WASF, and not change the overall tenor of this blog. WASF.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Waddling Penguin
As I've said many times, I wasn't paying attention; I voted for Obama expecting another FDR and instead I got another Clinton.
ReplyDeleteI'm a PCO and active in my local Democratic Party, so I don't really have much of a choice in the matter -- I have to campaign for and support Obama, if only to ward off the forces of darkness that are even to the right of him.
Okay, I do have a choice, but it's not a palatable one: I can give up and do a whole "pox on both your houses" thing, but that's just not me... I prefer to go down fighting.
For approximately 30 years I was in the Democratic Party, attending occasional conventions up through state senatorial district, and voting straight 'D' on the "lesser of [n] evils" principle.
ReplyDeleteI really don't know about that next year. Is Obama really a lesser evil than the undeniably terrifying Republican candidates? I mean, this is a man who has put out a contract on American citizens, secretly, on his own say-so, never mind any sort of due process. I do not see him as materially better than GeeDubya Bush.
Can I bring myself to vote for him? I'm still deciding. If Obama's billion-dollar campaign for 2012 makes it clear that he's going to win anyway, I may write in a protest vote.
The "lesser of two evils" really is not applicable when the supposed lesser evil continually co-opts and capitulates to the greater evil and allows itself to become corrupted or trampled time and time again.
ReplyDeleteWhen it is a choice between right-lite and batshit crazy right, you can try voting for right-lite only to have the batshit crazy right curbstomp the right-lite politician and end up getting his way anyway even if he lost the election. Voting for the batshit crazy right candidate gives you a candidate that really is batshit crazy. However, at least you know what you are getting with the batshit candidate. The other choice just slows down the steady but inevitable creep rightward because Democrats are like the enablers of an alcoholic that is drunk on lunacy. No matter what the Republicans do, the Democrats hand them another bottle when the Republicans ask for more and the Democrats are only too eager to give it to them.
So, whether by being complicit or by being incompetent, the Democratic party is quite ineffectual in stopping the Neoconfederate party from getting what it wants in the end and it looks like this will continue to be the case in the foreseeable future.