> If it comes down to it, I will - holding my nose and stomach -
>vote for Kerry. Just about anybody but Bush. But I'll do so without
>illusions.
Mr. Gerson is from Massachusetts. If his vote and that of his circle of influence might make any difference as to whether Kerry or Bush win the electoral votes of Massachusetts he might just as well stay home--Bush will have won nationally by a landslide. The same goes for the rest of us in "blue" states like New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut, etc. And conversely, the same applies in places like Texas or Indiana where a vote for Kerry would also be wasted or completely superfluous. So the "hold your nose" vote can be a valid option only in places like Florida or Missouri or New Mexico which could be close only if the national election (in the unlikely event that it was honest and not held or canceled under a manufactured terrorist hysteria) were as close as that in 2000. But it seems to me that most of us live in states where a Dumbocratic vote makes no sense at all. So we should be discussing, not how much lesser the Dumbocratic evil is as compared to the monstrous Ubu and his Bushits, but how can we help promote the best possible third-party alternative in that vast majority of states where the only meaningful vote will be a protest one.
Shane Mage
"When we read on a printed page the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems mystical, mystifying, even downright silly.
When we read on a computer screen the doctrine of Pythagoras that all things are made of numbers, it seems self-evidently true." (N. Weiner)