[lbo-talk] primaries strategy

Wojtek Sokolowski swsokolowski at yahoo.com
Mon Feb 11 06:40:04 PST 2008


MD primary is tomorrow and I decided to vote, after all. However, being fed up with the beauty contest between Clinton and Obama, I am thinking of an alternative strategy - vote your conscience (or as close to it as possible) in the primaries, and vote Democrat in November. This way, progressive votes can be registered on the political radar screen without splitting the vote in favor of the Repugs when it really counts.

Of all alternative candidates who are on MD Democratic primary list only Mike Gravel is still running. His chances of getting the nomination are close to nil and he remains ignored by the mainstream media preoccupied by the Clinton-Obama horse race, but his agenda looks much more sensible than that of Clinton or Obama cf. http://www.gravel2008.us/issues

He seems to be the only candidate dedicated to a universal health care system, in favor of immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq, unequivocally against military conforntation with Iran and Syria, and strong on environmental protection. His views on taxes are also intresting - his stance against the IRS will likely resonate with the US public but unlike IRS bashing righwingers - he is proposing a defacto tax on consumption, which is not a bad thing, as it may discourage mindless consumption. And it does not have to be regressive with his idea of tax rebates and perhaps different tax rates for diffrent category of products. An last but not least, his support seems to be concentrated in the large northern, eastern and western cities, which sails well with my fuck-the-jesusland attitude.

So if I were to pursue the strategy of voting close to my conscience in the primaries and voting Democrat in the general elections - I am inclined to pull the lever for Gravel tomorrow. Any thoughts or comments on that?

Wojtek

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