Conspiratorial Rubbish.
This diary provides a typical narrative from the Naderites, Paulites, and other such people who think that we should not participate in the political process at all. This piece by statusquobuster (SQB) is a perfect example of the kind of rubbish that such people will go for. There is a perfectly practical reason why we should not vote for Nader or Paul -- why vote for a candidate who won't win?
But it is typical for people like SQB to claim that our presidents are already chosen by Certain Unnamed Elites who meet in secret and who plan these things in advance. This already provides two strikes against his case. We have already heard these kinds of conspiracy theories from the White House millions of times, such as the false claim that Iraq was buying Uranium from Niger, for instance. The Axis of Evil claim, implying that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were somehow in league against the US, was another such conspiracy theory.
Third party candidates are third party for a reason -- their ideas or tactics are so flawed that they prevent themselves from ever gaining mainstream acceptance. Ron Paul would simply revert us back to the days of boom and bust, where corporations practically controlled everything because there were no checks and balances against corporate abuse of power. A vote for Ralph Nader instead of a Democrat would simply mean that the Republican would win and perpetuate the most criminal administration in history, with no justice in sight. And if we do not participate at all, as SQB would have us do, then we forfeit any right to complain when President Mitt Romney appoints SCOTUS Justice John Yoo to gut all the protections of our freedoms such as Roe, Brown, or Griswold.
And if, as SQB advocates, we refuse to participate in the process, then guess who will? None other than the corporate elites and religious right footsoldiers whom he says he is against. By not participating in the process, we cede the political ground to them and we have no right to complain when Mitt Romney decides that it is OK to use Enhanced Interrogation Techniques against US citizens.
There is a party that is conductive to our values, and it is called the Democratic party. Any Democrat would do all of the following:
--Protect Roe, Brown, and Griswold;
--Keep us out of dumb wars like Iraq;
--Preserve and expand the social safety net;
--Preserve and expand our civil liberties;
--Spend our taxpayer dollars in a fiscally responsible manner;
--Find ways of creating millions of new jobs;
--Protect our environment against corporate abuse of power.
No reasonable person can say this about any of the Republican candidates. Contrary to his false claim that the Democrats and Republicans are all one and the same, there are very clear differences between the two.
Obamathon
