McCain's pick of the Governor of Alaska (Wikipedia photo) for his running mate is evidence that something I said recently was right -- more right in fact than I suspected at the time.
I argued that voting for "spoiler" third party candidates is not necessarily counterproductive because it shows the major parties that they cannot take your vote for granted. What I was thinking was that it will influence their conduct during the next election. If a major party wants your vote it will have to run candidates that are more to your liking -- you are happy to vote for someone else if they don't. The candidates in this election are already fixed. And though a current candidate may alter his or her rhetoric to woo potential third party voters, there is sadly very little correlation between such talk and what the candidate will do if and when they rise to the power of office. Only the next election matters, I thought.
I hadn't thought of the choice of running mates in the current election. Why do you suppose that McCain chose Palin? Notice that, until she was named as his running mate, Palin had more favorable things to say about Ron Paul than about him. That's Ron Paul, they guy who has been snubbed by the Republican convention, but is holding a 10,000 person rally in Minneapolis as I write. Notice also that Paul voters have found a place to go. According to Zogby, the Libertarian Party's Bob Barr is pulling down 8 to 11% in battle ground states.
Obviously, McCain is not worried that Bob Barr will be elected President. But he is worried that Barak Obama will be. And if McCain loses enough votes to Barr, that is just what will happen. So he has a reason to try to please these disaffected voters. And to some extent, I suppose, he has, and not by words but by actions that could have a very substantial real world effect.
Let this be a lesson to us. You have reason to vote your conscience, whatever it tells you. They have little reason to take you seriously if you don't.
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Disclaimer: As I hope it it is needless to say, this is not an endorsement of Palin, nor of the ticket.
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Joan Walsh
Kerry Lauerman
David Bordwell
Salon.com
Comments
If this choice was a snide attempt to lure the Hillary Clinton supporters over to McCain, it will backfire, as Ms. Palin's positions on choice, universal healthcare, and the minimum wage are the complete antithesis of what Hillary Clinton has cared deeply about her entire life. If this was an attempt to get the evangelicals on McCain's side that will work somewhat as most were not going to vote for an African American Democrat anyway.
The pro-life movement in America has hijacked the Republican party and has caused it to lose the presidency, numerous governorships, and several senatorial races. Their single issue monopoly over the choice of who gets to run under the Republican banner is that of no choice whatsoever. You can be the most inexperienced candidate for vice president since Dan Quayle at a time our nation needs experience more than any time in our history since the second world war, but according to the Republicans, as long as you are pro-life issues life terrorism,
the economy, healthcare, the environment, and the war in Iraq all come a distant second.
The left wing feminists in the Democratic party who are whining about the fact that Barack Obama fairly, legitimately, and in every way possible defeated Hillary Clinton in caucuses and primaries nationwide and earned the nomination, and are threatening to vote for McCain to show their displeasure are people who do not care one iota about the issues Hillary Clinton devoted her life to, issues that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are agreement with almost one hundred percent. Any Clinton supporter who votes for McCain clearly cared more about Ms. Clinton celebrity status and persona than about anything Ms. Clinton fought for all her entire life.
I hope that the American people will not allow a person to become Vice President at this most dangerous time in our history who has the lack of experience Ms. Palin has and that the American voter will not vote for McCain solely because he chose a pro-life running mate. I also hope that the women that supported Ms. Clinton who are threatening to vote for McCain will think twice before voting for someone who disagrees with 98% of the positions Ms.Clinton ran for President on.
Barack Obama brings a needed change to the White House.
Uhm, a false-flag attack doth not a Crusade make.
Palin like a ‘honeycomb’ will attract the feminist swarm of bees, that Senator Clinton stirred up in her campaign, which are disgruntled with Obama and fly away from him, to her own beehive. Dare I say that Palin, among some of the other nails, one of them being race, will be putting the last nail on the coffin of Obama’s presidential aspirations.
In my opinion anyone’s apprehensions about whether Palin has the ability and knowledge and experience to take the reins of the White House if something happened to McCain are misplaced. A person’s character and actions, the latter even in a short time span as is the case of Palin’s short tenure as Governor, are immeasurably more important than knowledge in the accreditation of a president. The character of a person cannot be shared with another person, whereas the knowledge of a person or of many others can be shared with another person. And it lies upon the latter’s personality and character how that knowledge is to be used and what decisions will be caused by it. Palin’s tenure as governor of Alaska shows clearly that she can use her knowledge and that of others benignly, decisively, and effectively for the interests of her constituency. Hence she has the character to be an outstanding reformer and a great president. Voila une femme, to paraphrase Napoleon.
Boy, you folks are all over the map on this one!
I don't know what to add, except to reiterate that my post was meant to counter the "wasted vote" argument against voting for third party candidates (or impossible candidates in general, like Paul or Kucinich). If William Henry He -- I mean if John McCain becomes President then Barr voters, for better or worse, will have had an impact on history that is far, far out of proportion to their numbers. From their point of view, hardly a waste.
If anyone who reads this post still believes we live in a free country, I say: you should get out more. "None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
Palin is not a libertarian, that's true. I was saying that McCain's picking her looks like an attempt win votes by moving the ticket in a libertarian direction. In being pro-life, she does not differ from him. Where she does differ from him is in being (as near as we can tell) more pro-market than he is.
Whether you can be a pro-life libertarian is an interesting question, like whether you can be a pro-life feminist. I am inclined to say "no," but if you assume that abortion is clearly murder, you get a different answer.
Even doing clinic defense among the insulting-ignorant-arrogant scum of 'Operation Rescue,' I met many very sweet people who were committed to the other side of this question. My question is different. I think, when we speak of imposing the force of criminal law in a 'free' country, the essential question is: "Who decides?"
Fundamentalist Christians, based upon the preposterous nonsense of their religion (lies that can be demonstrated to a 12 year old in 20 minutes) believe that they have the right to put the rest of us in jail, for failing to submit to the preposterous authority of their fringe religion. They are enemies of everything for which America's founding fathers fought yet they wrap themselves in the flag. Are we supposed to act as if that makes sense?
The idea that Sarah Palin would attract "Libertarians" is almost as absurd as the thought that she would attract disaffected Democratic women. Tho only Libertarians who would vote for her are of the exclusively economic variety (free-market uber alles) and the only angry Hillary supporters who would choose this anti-choice/gay-bashing bigot would be stupid. I don't think there is significant market share there.
Governor Palin does have a market, however. She is perfectly positioned to attract the blue-collar bigot vote. The "Reagan Democrats" who have voted out of their resentments and against their families economic future, for thirty years. There are many guys out there there who are seeking an excuse not to vote for a Black man --- even one with a compelling story at a tipping point in the business cycle. They resent Senator Obama's slick erudition and his easy manner; they resent his success; they resent and resentment is the essential element in the elemental failure of their lives. There is market out there in pandering to the dissatisfactions of angry white underachievers. Sarah Palin is guaranteed to attract their attention. She will play on their resentments and pamper their delusions. As long as they don't think for one minute about what is good for their children's future, she will get their votes.
If Democrats do not have the guts to unflinchingly expose her utter unfitness for this position then to crush her like a bug; if they let her hide-out even from the wimps of the Washington press corps, then they don't deserve to win the presidency.
I vote in Republican primaries for the candidate most respectful of individual liberty, my choices rarely prevail. Congressman Tom Campbell was the last Republican for whom I campaigned or voted for with any enthusiasm. He lost a senate race to DiFi.
I generally vote for Libertarians with exceptions for quality Democrats (eg. Anna Eshoo, my congresswoman). In this election, I support Obama for the reason that Republicans have betrayed every conservative principle, with cynicism, sarcasm and blatant corruption. Cleaning the barn comes first. I don't fear his 'socialism' we have de facto socialism but only for the rich. I don't fear democratic corruption, we already have blatant corruption, it is just too expensive for normal people to access. I respect BO's intelligence and erudition , which might provide the most elemental social change needed for America to have a future - that is turning young people towards respect for serious, competitive study and the hard work it takes to get an education. Contempt for education in pop culture is eviscerating America's future in a competitive world. The 2008 iteration of the double-talk express offers nothing.
Anyway, if I become certain that Obama will carry California by a theft-proof majority, I would vote for Bob Barr to send two message to Republicans. One, Libertarian voters control the future success of the Republican Party; two, it is a lot easier to reach out to folks in the middle with libertarian ideas than it is with the institutionalized ignorance, bigotry and lies of Fundamentalist fanatics who think that Christianity is a political party.
I have been watching "Persepolis" over & over to keep up my French. If you don't know it, it's a wonderful animated film from the French animated series of the same name by Marjane Satrapi, detailing her coming-of-age odyssey, between her native Iran and a ex-pat life in Europe (1st Vienna then Paris). In the process she tells a history of the Iranian life of a spirited girl then woman in a loving-modern- political family. Her history of Iran is harrowing at best. Approaching the chaos following the overthrow of the Shaw, her mother says: : "At lease we know things can't get any worse." The film then goes on to show how off-base that observation can be,,,
As to voting for Obama, I still think it's a bet on intelligence over a corrupt, cynical and either incompetent or criminal (I don't know which is worse...) Republican Party. Maybe I am a snob but I think the better bet is for the guy at the top of the class. I don't know about your grad school experience but in mine, no matter how prestigious the program; no matter how bright the people at the top of the class were, the bottom of the class didn't add much. You and I seem to be in the minority that has some understanding of the situation America is in. At least, we both know enough to see that we're in deep doodoo. I see the Republicans offering NOTHING (no courage, no integrity & no incite) to face problems domestically and worse, I see their attitude to world affairs, based upon dangerous delusions. We'll see...