>Isn't there someone here who can tell us how the BJP is really the
>lesser of two evils?
>
>Doug
-No, but yesterday there would have been plenty around -to tell us how voting Communist Party (of your choice) -would throw the election to the BJP.
On what basis? If the Communist Party is most likely to win a constituency against the BJP, as in West Bengal and other areas, voting Congress would be seen as throwing the election to the BJP.
How to vote strategically depends on the particular electoral system in place-- first-past-the-post, proportional representation, runoffs, etc. Reasonable left strategy under one electoral system is idiocy under another.
One reason, no doubt, that BJP lost is that the Left, Congress and a number of local parties were more coordinated in their election strategy. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/indi-a23.shtml
The Democratic Party has de facto been willing to cut such pacts with independents willing to ally with them. Look at Vermont where both Bernie Sanders and Jeffords are not members of the Dems, but no one in the party will support opponents to them.
The problem with Nader and the Greens is that they have zero strategy to negotiate such electoral pacts. Putting so much focus on a Presidential run is just emblematic of their "rule or ruin" dead end approach.
Nathan Newman