Reply #7: "sometimes you have to be strategic" [View All]

[welshTerrier2]

thanks for your post ... i agree with what you wrote ...

my point with this thread is to "tone down the rhetoric" and to try to explain MY thinking on voting strategies ...

i have always voted for the Dem presidential candidate in the past; i'm also incredibly frustrated right now with the Party and WILL definitely consider a 3rd party candidate ...

i can't begin to tell you how much i hope it doesn't come to that ... i want to win too ... but increasingly, i see a party that just refuses to speak to the issues i care most deeply about ... i'm certainly not a "single issue" voter ... i'm certainly not inflexible ... i'm certainly not unwilling to be pragmatic ...

i exaggerate here to make a point ... my example is not meant to reflect reality but rather to show a direction: imagine an "automatic Dem" making the statement: "I know he wants to bring back slavery but so does the republican and it would give us a majority" ... nooooo, don't ask me to stand up for that guy ...

it's wrong to say "we have to do ANYTHING to win" ... i cannot, and will not, vote for someone so blind that they continue to support the death and misery in Iraq ... i cannot support someone who would deprive gays or women of their civil liberties and their right to equality ... there's room for compromise on short-term, pragmatic tactics ... there's no room for flexibility on making at least a deep verbal commitment to the ultimate goal ... voting for candidates that don't believe in full equality for all sends a terrible message symbolically and results in a blatant disregard for our Constitutional freedoms pragmatically ...

i don't take a 3rd party vote lightly ... i understand the reasons provided by "automatic Dems" and i would always consider them before making a decision ... but after years upon years of watching MY party drift to the right and even relegate some of us to the dark, hidden corners, i have to seriously consider whether a new path is called for ...

as i said, i hope it doesn't come to that but i did want to clarify my reasons ... those that revel in "bashing the Nader voters" just don't get it ... the only sane path lies in building alliances ... and they do need building ... how's that for being pragmatic??