If all you ever do is complain about how horrible and abysmal the Democrats are, but at the end of the day, right before the election happens, you say, you know what, as much as I loathe you, and as disappointing as youve been, and as horrible as the things you have done, Im going to give you my support because youve scared me that the other alternative is just a little bit worse
and therefore since Ill never vote Republican, you have my unconditional undying support no matter how much how stmp on my values, no matter how horrible the things that you do
what youre doing is you're guaranteeing that youll always be ignored.
And thats the position that so many liberals and progressives have been in. Which is, you know, really finding Democratic policies to be repellent and yet at the same time, at the end of the day saying, well youve convinced me that theyre just a tiny, little bit worse. And the only way to break that is to say well, even though I know that by abstaining or supporting a third party, Im going to be sacrificing some of my short term political interests; Im going to be causing a few more Republicans to be elected than otherwise might be elected; on balance, Im willing to sacrifice my short term interests in order to do something to subvert the stranglehold that these two parties have on the political process because electing more Democrats, even though its a little less scary, accomplishes nothing good. And everyones going to have to decide for themselves when they get to that point, and I think and hope that that point is pretty close. And if Obama does move to the center as the consensus is telling him that he should and starts doing things like cutting Social Security, which theyre revving up to do if they can get consensus on, in a very short period of time, I think youre gonna see lots and lots of progressives and Democrats even people who hated the Naderites for abandoning the party, start to entertain those options, and a lot sooner rather than later. And I hope thats the case.
