To My Fed-Up-With-It-All Left-Leaning Friends (And there are more than a few of you. . . )

[qos]

I very rarely post about politics here. I figure all my friends have their own convictions and I'm not interested in lecturing anyone to change their position. However, I am very afraid of how much worse things in our country -- and the world -- could get if McCain wins (and Palin is within a heartbeat of the presidency).

Whatever reason a liberal may have for not wanting to vote for Obama, this fact remains: either Obama or McCain will be the next president of the United States. And that president is going to have a dramatic impact on how soon we can end the war in Iraq, whether or not our civil liberties are going to continue to be eroded, whether or not women retain the right to choose and GLBT people will be treated equally under the law, whether or not separation of church and state means anything, whether or not the big oil companies will be priveleged over the environmental future of our planet, and whether corporations like Halliburton continue to grow fat on wars that drag on without a meaningful end in sight.

The time to work for radical change, to improve the system, to promote third party candidates, is before the major party candidates have monopolized the political landscape. There has to be time for excitement to build, for mindshare to be won. As unfortunate as it is, once the electoral juggernaut has reached a certain level of speed and momentum, it's simply not possible for anyone else to jump on in a meaningful way.

There may well be third party candidates who are both qualified to be president and who would bring an even better set of values and policies to the White House than Obama. But there is simply no way that's going to happen now. And every vote for a third party candidate in this election makes it that much more likely that McCain and Palin will be running our country for the next four years.

I don't claim that Obama is the second coming. However, I do believe that his leadership will lead our country and the world in a better direction than McCain will.


Remember how sick we felt four years ago as we watched Bush win an election we were sure he was going to lose? How much different would our country be now if he hadn't won? How many lives saved? How many freedoms still intact? If everyone who'd talked about how much they wanted Bush out had gone to the polls and voted for Kerry instead, where would we be now?

What kind of country and world do you want to be living in four years from now?

Comments

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way. I have a friend who is bright, intelligent, and a strong supporter of Nader, a candidate I'd like to see in the presidency. But he's not going to win. He might have had a chance if there had been earlier and bigger campaigning. He might have had a chance, if he and Gonzales had been allowed into the debates. But neither of those things happened. And to trump it all, he's not the Green Party candidate, so my partner wouldn't vote for him because a third party wouldn't gain enough of a majority to establish a true three party system in future elections.

As much as I'd like to see a candidate (like Nader or Kucinich) with values closer to my own, I know that they don't have a chance this particular election. And there is no fucking way I can stand by while Palin comes marching in with her combat boots ready to stomp out the last of our freedoms, because ultimately, she's the real threat. McCain caves under pressures to extremists, but he's not long for this world, and I want to make sure that Palin has absolutely no chance at being that close to such a great amount of power.

I can't stop my friend from voting Nader, but my partner and I are working to get out the word that we must side with Obama or lose everything that's left worth mattering in this country.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting this.

[spring-heel-jim.livejournal.com]

Even as a brit ( and therefore no more than an interested observer ) the idea of McCain scares me. And if he dies of a suddent heart attack ( let's face it, the guy's 74 ) then you have Sarah Palin as president. Now that really scares me.

I thought your post was a really lucid, well-thought out piece. Granted, Obama might not be the second coming - but he's probably the best option you have right now.

My big fear is whether the US is ready for a black president. I hope so, for all our sakes.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Jim.

I had a really hard time posting this.

I don't like the feeling that politics could cause rifts between friends and me. I know that my friends who feel differently about this have very strong feelings indeed, and have invested a lot of thought into their positions.

But I would feel cowardly if I failed to speak out on something I feel so strongly about.

[saskia139.livejournal.com]

I am both scared and heartened by the fact that people in other nations care whom we elect for President, and that they, too, are pulling for Obama. Thank you.

[autumnonthelake.livejournal.com]

I've actually had nightmares at the thought of Palin being a heartbea away from the presidency.

I hope you don't mind me adding you to my journal. I discovered you through another friend's lj and I found your entries well worth the read.

[qos.livejournal.com]

Thanks for adding me!

Your journal is beautiful, and I look forward to reading more.

[kyrottimus.livejournal.com]

Both candidates scare the living bejesus out of me.

Obama is a marxist and McCain is a psychopath.

It's like a coin toss between Hitler (McCain) or Stalin (Obama).

I weep for the future of our nation, regardless of who winds up in office.

[amqu.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I hadn't realized there were so many left leaners thinking about going for a third party candidate. I just figured the third party question would be a loss for McCain with so many libertarians and such going for Bob Barr.