(midnight. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
Should US voters cast their ballot for those whose principles they share, or simply for the lesser of two evils?
Many on the US left are backing President Barack Obama’s re-election only because they feel the Republican agenda would be even worse for the country. Should voters cast their ballot for those whose principles they share, or simply for the lesser of two evils?
Progressive forces in the US have spoken out about rising inequality, the expansion of covert international warfare and expanded curbs on civil liberties under Obama.
His economic policies are accused of institutionalising the gap between rich and poor as he failed to take comprehensive action for those facing foreclosure in favour of protecting the interests of Wall Street.
From economic policy, to climate change, to foreign policy, Obama has disappointed his progressive base. But the prospect of a Republican victory next week is enough for many to stick with the president. His policies may be short on specifics, but the ideological framework put forward by Mitt Romney has the left frightened.
1 comment
He has been on every side of every issue as far as I know; sometimes in the same sentence he takes radically opposite positions. He even co-opts the language of the left and not-really-left, such as “trickle down.”
Could Romney be another Nixon?
That antisemitic paranoiac who prolonged the agony of Vietnam War with a secret plan to end it that remains a secret.
And yet that terrible person managed to begin an end to the Cold War with his Opening to China, instituted the beginnings of a guaranteed annual income that would have ended the intrusive welfare system without pain, began the biotechnology revolution with his War on Cancer, established the EPA, and bowed down to Keynesian economic theory that was aborted by Jimmy Carter. By getting himself impeached, Nixon even laid the groundwork for what might have been cleaner government if the will existed.
Every president since has been worse in my view though I would have chanced the everlasting fires of hell before voting for such a man as Nixon.
Today I will vote for Rocky Anderson and Luis Rodriguez if I am able but it is not clear I am able as once claimed.
I would vote for Jill Stein in a heartbeat if I didn’t believe her wrongheaded environmental policies were as helpful to the cause of preventing global warming as those of Exxon and the Koch brothers. [A subject for another time when I am again willing to chance the wrath of true believers in trivial, ultra-expensive, intermittent renewables and deny science like the global warming rejectionists.]
As usual, it beats the hell out of me, what is the right way to vote when even grand people like Jill Stein are dead wrong about their proclaimed primary objective and “liberal” Obama is mostly a standard issue conservative.
Best, Terry