To Vote Your Gut or Hold Your Nose
So for you to come out and announce that you’re going to cast votes based on fear—that’s a gray, blustery, sad day for the city of Chicago.
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First, you’re implicitly saying that the Democrats should feel free to run the most abominable candidate they can find, so long as the Republican is still worse. It’s precisely that attitude which Rahm Emanuel seized upon as he engineered the increasing right-wing tilt of the Democratic Party. The result is that we have a horrific Democratic majority in Washington, led by people who wouldn’t even let single-payer health care be discussed, are actively defending Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, threw billions of our tax dollars to “bail out” banks which are now just sitting on the cash soaking up interest, and much more. Of course, here in Illinois, we’ve long known what a horrific Democratic majority might look like, because King Michael Madigan is the one who continues to rule the state.
A vote for Rich Whitney is different. It is the practical vote. Because when push comes to shove, it’s Madigan, not Daley, who is the real machine boss in this state. He’s speaker of the house, chair of the state Democratic Party, has his daughter in place as Attorney General, got the law fixed so that he could retain even more control over his legislators . . . the list goes on and on. And it’s the Greens—not the Republicans—who are taking the real electoral fight to Madigan. Even the Reader has underreported that we’re on the verge of knocking a couple of Madigan’s foot soldiers out. That’s a shame, because that’s the real simmering story of this election.
Sadly, supporting third parties in a system so biased toward only two rarely does anything but boost the candidate you like least. . . . Ultimately, in the short term, the actions of sell-out Democrats and Green Party supporters have the same result: lesser progressive policy than is otherwise possible. —wjmaggos
