It must be asked of people eschewing third party voters---What did you do since 2005 to make sure you and other Americans wouldn't have to hold their nose and vote in this election?

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An article posted by Linda Milazzo and headlined on OpEdNews suggested that if you vote third party in this election you will “help elect McCain and Palin, and thereby re-empower the self-righteous ideologues who berated progressives, liberals, democrats, greens, libertarians, etc., for the past 8 years while their leaders were on board.”

Milazzo suggests that those who will vote third party will “empower” McCain, the Republican Party, and its supporters who are “vicious right wing zealots and fanatics.”

Milazzo cites the fact that “Republicans are dirty tricking every second so Obama will lose” as reason why supporters of third party candidates should fold.

The article ends with this point, “John McCain and Sarah Palin are a danger to our nation. Electing them would be a travesty. The only way to ensure their loss is to vote for Obama in record numbers.”

This isn’t the first posting to be headlined that goes after those who are voting third party in this presidential election. Other articles which became popular like this one have been posted.

The comments on Milazzo's article show that there is a group of OpEdNews supporters who are principled in their idealism and most likely principled in their journalism. One could suggest that they provide many of the articles you read which raise questions about McCain and Obama rather than focusing on McCain and letting Obama off the hook.

Not all Obama supporters here have been 100% supportive of Obama, but Obama supporters have been cautions when discussing Obama’s faults. Supporters have gone along with his run for the White House never admitting that pros might not outweigh the cons.

If they did admit that there were fewer pros than cons, a transition to combining coverage of the candidates along with how third party candidates could break through barriers put up by the two most prominent parties was never considered by these supporters. Supporters instead clung to the fact that once he is elected the possibility for change will present itself and that is when we go to work to correct the cons that have manifested themselves through Obama’s campaign.

OpEdNews has, unfortunately, been a textbook example of other progressive news sites where “liberal” and “progressive” writers write under the assumption that they must support Democrats because Democrats are “liberal” and “progressive.” Few write with a “liberal” or “progressive” leaning aimed at raising the conscience of the American public and enabling truly liberal or progressive leaders to run for office and take action while in office effectively.

Just consider the fact that the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) sold themselves out by endorsing Obama in January 2008. PDA gave up on Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards. Their endorsement included a phrase that read Obama “has not always been a progressive.” They could have waited but instead chose to sell out.

This brouhaha about not voting third party that is flaring up is ignited under the guise that those against voting third party support third parties but not in this election and had third parties been organizing since 2005, they would have supported a third party candidate maybe and they respect what third party candidates are doing and in safe states it’s okay to vote for them but in battleground states it’s an extreme disservice to this nation and you are no saint if you vote third party and if you vote third party you suffer from a psychosis because no third party candidate can win.

No writer/editor/publisher will admit that this support is artificially created so that they can comment and engage in discussion.

It must be asked of people eschewing third party voters---What did you do since 2005 to make sure you and other Americans wouldn’t have to hold their nose and vote in this election?

Why do they seem to think that we the devout must do the footwork and the organizing and put all the time and effort into restructuring democracy so the power might be shifted from the few to the many?

Why do they seem to indicate that if we fail in our endeavors than it’s too bad and we should try again in the next presidential election?

Those who operate under such a mentality are no better than the Libertarians or Greens who are voting Democrat in this election.

How can you call yourself a Green or a Libertarian and then not vote for your party’s presidential candidate in November? What a waste?

Why did you do all that work (if any) between 2004 and now if you were just going to sell out for so-called hope and change?

What we are disputing is whether this election should be one where we begin a short term solution or a long term solution. I prefer the latter.

I cannot rest on my laurels and allow certain comments to be unchallenged. For example---

In response to third party talking points, third party voters are told, “None of [the points] change the fact that McCain would be exponentially worse than Obama.”

“The idea that a Gore administration in 2001 would have been just the same as having a Bush administration after 9/11 is ludicrous. The same holds for Obama vs. McCain.” Third party voters are denigrated for suggestomg Gore might have been like Bush in any way.

Third party voters are called “parasites” because, according to those against voting third party this election, third party voters “know there is a difference between McCain and Obama.”

How much of this bloviating is a result of nearly eight years of talking points promoted by the corporate media that Nader cost Gore the election? Indeed, in order for media to cover Nader’s candidacy, media has to mention this in the lead of their news story along with the word “perennial” so we all question Nader’s decision to run for president again.

Third party voters will not empower McCain/Palin for the simple fact that McCain/Palin are not going to check out the third party votes cast on Election Day after winning and consider them when deciding what agenda to pursue as an administration.

McCain/Palin voters will empower McCain/Palin.

And, actually, Obama/Biden will have empowered McCain/Palin by failing to confront Palin’s theocratic ideals and the McCain campaign’s racism if they win.

Ask yourself, why is the race so close? Polls lie? “Bradley effect”? Why so close when so many feel Obama has blown this thing wide open?

Republican dirty tricks are further reason to vote third party. Just who challenged voting irregularities and asked for a recount in 2004? Green Party presidential candidate Green Party candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party candidate Michael Badnarik did, not Democratic Party presidential candidate John Kerry.

Had these fine third parties not stood up when Kerry stood down, would we know the full scale of fraud that occurred in Ohio? Third parties stop dirty tricksters of any political strip in their tracks.

And the only way to ensure McCain/Palin’s loss is not to vote Obama. The only way to ensure their loss goes back to what Noam Chomsky wrote days ago (and I think what Howard Zinn would say if asked the same question): If Americans want progressive change, Americans must recognize “that consistently over the centuries, progressive legislation and social welfare have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from above.”

Furthermore, Chomsky adds that such struggles “must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from the voting booth to the workplace.”

A McCain win does not necessarily constitute a win for Republican ideas. And vice versa.

What we do between now and the next election could effectively make a McCain administration ineffective in the same way that what Republicans do during an Obama administration could make an Obama administration ineffective.

Illusions about Obama must be suspended if we are to move forward so, for third party voters and others, in these final days before the election I will write a series of articles on “the differences” and on third parties that continues the work I did earlier when talking about third party voters being “parasites” surfaced.

This slur (yes, slur, do you see me calling anyone a namby pamby liberal?) leveled at those with the courage and fortitude to stake out and work towards a way out of this mess is unwarranted and perverse.

For those of you who get that McCain-Palin are bad and want to quit beating a dead horse, turn to my writings in the final days before this election. I will talk about Obama and McCain and this two-party system which we must deal with now and during the next administration.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com