> The problem of presidential election years for activists on the left is
> not only that they tend to suck many activists' time and energy into the
> self-defeating project of electing the perceived lesser evil who turns
> against them but also that Democratic Party political machines suck big
> money out of small pockets of ordinary Americans with liberal bleeding
> hearts.
I've been wanting to write an article, or at least an entry on my blog, dispelling the myth that "voting takes only a few minutes." In addition to the actual physical act of voting, all of us have to devote hueg amounts of time for a year leading up to the election on stuff relating to voting. We argue about it. We talk about the candidates. We watch news about the election process and we read articles and op-eds. This takes up a large amount of time that could be spent on something else.
Has anybody attempted to analyze the damage that the presidential elections do to the left alternative press? How much coverage is wasted on the presidential elections in the Left press which could have been devoted to more important news and analysis? Is it so bad that Project Censored should just stop publishing its list after every Presidential election year? I mean, at this point, could any coverage in the left media tell us anything new about the election? Everybody knows who Kerry is and why Bush sucks, so why don't we just accept the fact the Kerry is going to win and move on to more important stuff?
Chuck0