Many people, on many websites have been telling me that I should just accept the inevitable and accept either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama as my candidate. This is because of the fact that John Edwards pulled out of the race and we now have no Progressive to vote for. This means that we now must fight against the Republicans and swallow our convictions and do anything to get any Democrat elected, no matter how unpalatable they are. This argument is flawed and not only flawed, but dangerous. First of all, we should never just willingly accept the “lesser of two evils” because the media and the corporate politicians have only focused on a few select candidates. There are others out there that still inspire the imagination and may very well hold the answer to our nation’s problems. One of these people is amazingly enough, a Democrat and he is still in the Primary race. His name is Mike Gravel, the first victim of the media’s selective elimination process that they undertook with the knowledge and compliance of the other Democratic candidates.
Perhaps if the other candidates had stood their ground and protested the media’s interference in their own party’s politics, Dennis Kuchinich would not have been excluded later on. If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would have stood up to the networks and fought for their party, maybe I wouldn’t be as enraged over the way things stand now. They got away with disenfranchising Gravel, then Kuchinich and it was no wonder that they gave Edwards less and less “face-time” as the campaign went on. Edwards can blame himself for failing to receive equal coverage in the MSM, he should have stood up for Gravel and Kuchinich. Ron Paul is going through the very same thing over on the Republican side. This shouldn’t be happening and we all know it. The problem is that anyone that stands up to the MSM is instantly labeled as someone on the “fringe” (Unless you are someone like me and you don’t make a big enough blip on their radar screen).
The way that the powers that run this country expect us to have “convertible values” and change them to support the one that is in first place is amazing. It’s not trendy to have values that can’t be reverse engineered to fit the circumstances we find ourselves in. If I support Gravel or Edwards, I should be able to support Clinton or Obama the next day. Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. If a Republican gets into the White House, so be it. I’m not going to vote for a “Pseudo-Democrat that holds the same value system as a Republican because they happen to have convinced people that they are Democrats because they have a “D” after their name. I feel that supporting Mike Gravel is the right thing to do. This might not ingratiate me with Democrats that promote any Democrat that has a chance of winning; I don’t believe that it’s all that important to sacrifice my principles for. I believe that by supporting Mike Gravel and asking other Progressives to support him will bring his message to more people.
We have no idea what will happen between now and November. Clinton or Obama, along with their corporate sponsors and their platforms that are similar to Republican virtues, just might win the Democratic nomination. This is without hearing them say anything about reversing the Military Commissions Act, or The Patriot Act, or The Insurrection Act or stopping “Rendition Flights” or reversing all of the signing statements that George W. Bush has written. I believe that an Obama Presidency or a Clinton Presidency would not be that different than the one we presently have. If the way that Hillary Clinton laughed in Mike Gravel’s face when he took her to task on the Kyl-Lieberman amendment is any hint of how she will act as President, it really doesn’t bother me that much to see John McCain as the next President. We could also see a viable third party arise with candidates that are much more appealing than the ones we have now. Al Gore could decide to run. It’s too early to make a decision to support people that you don’t agree with.
I will not be intimidated into voting for the lesser of two evils. I support Mike Gravel and there are many other Progressives that do also. If we all decided to stand up for what we believe in, instead of giving into fear, we could actually make a difference. I don’t believe that is such a hard thing to ask of other Progressives.
That’s the way I see it.
