>Yoshie Wrote:
>> For instance, suppose that Bush narrowly wins the electoral college with
>> only 40% of the popular vote, with 21% of the popular vote going to Nader
>> and other candidates on the left and 39%, going to Kerry --
>> that will be a far more symbolically powerful way of denying Bush and
>
>Yoshie is this a mistype:
>"with 21% of the popular vote going to Nader and 39% to Kerry --"
>
>I suppose hypothetical can involve the use of any numbers you like
>but some referent to a possible reality for this election and not
>some numbers for your fantasy election of the future would be good.
>All these fantasy numbers of yours serve to do is to obviscate the
>real strategic bind that those of left find themselves.
I'm saying that there is NO bind whatsoever for voters on the left who live in one-party states like New York, California, and Texas -- except in Oklahoma (where Bush is winning a whopping 61% and Kerry, only 28% in the latest poll, according to <http://www.electoral-vote.com/>), where there is literally NO presidential candidate other than Bush and Gore on the ballot and write-in candidacy is not allowed.
>Far better to get Kerry elected and then have the spectacle of the
>Dems unleashing the hounds and thugs on the anti-war, anti-poverty,
>anti-racist and anti-capitalist left. Surely this will make your
>case for the need for a third party stronger. With Bush in office
>you will simply bolster the case against any third party and have
>succeeded in strengthening two party dominance!
If leftists want to use their votes to make marginal contributions to electing Kerry, their votes will matter only in the battleground states like Ohio.
Will Kerry 2004 supporters on the left like Doug and Tariq Ali be supporting a third-party presidential candidate in 2008 or will they be supporting Kerry again, because he is "the lesser evil" compared to the 2008 Republican presidential candidate (whoever it is) and a Green Party or any other third-party candidate is not likely to win the electoral college contest? I have no idea what they will do, but leftists who will support Kerry in 2008 will have to spin more furiously than they have in 2004. After all, they won't be able to tap into anti-incumbent sentiments fueled by Kerry's wars, occupations, and fiscal austerity. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>