Beating Bush is Only Goal - No 3rd Party National Vote

Winning nationally is what matters in 2004. The goal has to be beating George W. Bush and helping the Democrats retake the Senate and House of Representatives so that we can bring to an end the Republican stranglehold on the federal government and ensure some semblance of citizen involvement.

The reasons are pretty basic:

1. Truth is not Bush's strong suit.
2. The Bush administration is the most overtly, fanatically and aggressively partisan in recent memory.
3. The war in Iraq.
4. Bush's raging unilateralism.
5. The environment.
6. The economy.
7. Right-wing judges.
8. John Ashcroft and the USA PATRIOT Act.
9. Crony capitalism.
10. The First Amendment.

The best way to deal with these issues is to find a Democrat willing to take on the president and for progressives to get in the trenches and help and not to sidetrack the debate by fragmenting the opposition to Bush.

Keep in mind the history of third party movements, especially at the national level. Rarely do they poll more than a handful of votes, and when they do they tend only to play the spoiler role, handing elections to candidates with political agendas radically different than their own.

So while I remain an advocate for third parties, I've come to realize that my idealism is misplaced in a larger system that ensures they remain at the margins. The system, as currently constituted, is rigged against third-party candidates -- whether Green, Reform, Libertarian or other. Voting for the Green candidate for higher office too often means stealing a vote from the more progressive of the two major party candidates and giving the election to the more conservative one -- generally the Republican. That seems ridiculously counterproductive.

Until we make some changes in the system itself I have to make the pragmatic choice and cast a negative vote against President Bush and hope for the best. -- The Populist