> Others tell me that Kerry is the "lesser evil" and you should only
> support "pure" third party candidates. It's not a litmus test to note
> that
> Nader is not pure but is merely a "lesser lesser evil", which means we
> are
> back to a pure strategic choice in voting.
In this twisted, warped, cruel mess of a capitalist system we are privileged to live in, there is no such thing as a really "good" political choice. I believe that all our choices are bad, in one way or another. It's true -- if we vote for Kerry, we are voting for keeping the troops in Iraq, continuing 97% of what the government is doing, etc., etc. If we vote for Nader and the Greens, we are supporting a hopelessly bourgeois movement which is only a few millimeters distant from the Demopublicans (though, if we get up really close and squint, we can see the difference). If we vote for Bush ... Well, let's not even discuss that.
The point is, every choice is "evil." We want to bring about a better world, a better system, but we don't even have a clear idea of what it is we are trying to bring about. Sure, we can bandy words like "peace," "freedom," and "justice," but anybody, including Bush and his clowns, can use them.
Of course, we have to support the lesser -- or the least -- evil, the best of a bunch of bad choices; what else is available? But can we at least agree on which would be the least bad choice? No, because that would imply that there was a clear concept of a better world to be aimed at by our choice, and that we all agreed on what it was. But we can't agree about our end, let alone the best means toward it.
It would be desirable if we could all agree, at least, that it is possible to disagree about these complex questions in good faith and conduct our disagreements calmly and without calling each other names all the time. But politics is something people tend to get passionate about -- so, let the games continue.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)