> The fears most commonly cited by some of my friends on the US left are
> that
> the two would be "swallowed up" by the DP machine or that it would
> somehow
> be a betrayal of their principles to try to build the left inside the
> party.
> But they're far more marginalized today, and it should be recalled
> that both
> men -- one a lawyer, the other a stockbroker -- are standing on a
> liberal
> platform not fundamentally different than that of the Democrats,
> rather than
> one calling for the overthrow of capitalism, as the socialists did in
> invoking principle against participation in a "bourgeois" party.
Exactly. What's so "radical" about these guys that radicals should be supporting them? If I'm going to throw my vote away, I'm at least going to do it to vote for someone I *really* agree with ideologically. If ideology is all I'm voting for, what I probably should do is write my own name in -- who do I agree with more?
In 1968, disgusted with both Humphrey and Nixon, I cast a write-in for Dick Gregory. I could see doing something similar this year, but PA is a knife-edge swing state, and I just don't think it's a good idea to put the great Timber Company Profiteer and "Internets" fan in for another term. (I wish I were in NY and could vote for McReynolds, BTW; he's really a good guy.)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Had I been present at the Creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe. -- Attr. to Alfonso the Wise, King of Castile