ONE MAN

ONE VOTE

KING GEORGE!

AMEN

Klaus and others evaluating your votes... the most important thing, and sounds like we're all committed to this equally and that is we VOTE. If you don't vote, you don't matter. God bless us and God protect the vote.

A better day is ahead for us, I believe this. And we've got two years after November to slate GOOD candidates that really will do what they say. Let's all do like Klaus and do the research and vote.

I was furious with the Greens who insisted there was 'no difference' between Gore and Bush. My mind was boggled by those few Greens who actually voted for Nader over Kerry. I agree, the 'no difference' line is nearly always empty rhetoric... except in this case. I didn't vote Green because Ford was too conservative, I voted Green because I honestly don't care if a centrist Republican defeats a conservative Democrat. Do your research. Ford supports reckless trade, he supports reckless tax cuts, he opposes universal health care, and he supports privatizing social security. If anything, Tennessean progressives may very well be better off with a man like Corker legislating with appeals to the center than a man like Ford legislating with appeals to the far-right.

Klaus, I deeply understand your very difficult position. I'm in the same boat... different issues, but the same quandry. I'm an Evangelical Conservative who made the huge blunder of voting my faith for GWB the first time around... I soon realized (as have most people with a brain) that GWB is a liar and only panders to faith-based folks... sounds like you have the same issue with the Democratic Party that I had with the Republican Party... how can you vote for people who don't REALLY represent your views (on gay rights and all that)?

So what do you do? Well, as I said on my previous post, you have choices. You can do as you did and basicly vote "in protest" for a candidate that DOES represent your views but has zero chance of getting elected. I can understand that from the perspective of voting your faith and your conscience. And, in more perfect world, what you did would matter. In most developed nations, there are coalitions built from the various groups that get votes... so in Israel, for example, your vote would matter because the Green Party would have you and your fellow Green voters in hand when other, larger parties came calling about putting together a government... and like I said in my previous posting, there's a day, down the road, after we get rid of the idiotic Electoral College, after we shrink campaigns from four years to a few months like in most democratic countries.

But right now, all you get to do is crow on Salon and to your friends. That's it. Your guy will make some speeches... but even that will draw to a close after November. Your guy isn't going anywhere. Your vote is down the tubes. What's worse, since you are a thinker, that's one more person with a brain taken out of the electoral landscape, leaving brain-dead ditto-heads pulling a Repub trigger to make more of a difference.

That's the real tragedy here. Not only is your vote down the tubes, the very things you care about are now LESS likely to be acted on.

So, next time, do us all a favor and vote for folks who at least are more INCLINED to care about you, even if they largely ignore you.

That's what I'm doing when I vote Democratic. I know that the party is largely pro-choice (I'm not), I know that the party is generally agnostic (I'm not), but because THERE ARE LARGER ISSUES HERE like if the planet is actually going to be around, I'm voting Democratic.

Whether you can marry your lover is going to matter a lot less to you when we as country are completely sold off to the Chinese, which is happening. Whether you can marry your lover is going to matter a lot less to you when some of the folks we're pissing off, like Iran and Korea decide to call out bluff and enter into more wars.

Think for a second. What matters most to you, really? Is it your right to get married or the chance that your family will be ALIVE in two years?

Think bigger. Think globaly. Act locally... and elect Democrats, okay? Eventually, there will come a time when we can all kick back and celebrate your marriage (I'm not really for gay marraige but I'll LIVE with it when it happens)... but let's all make sure we LIVE first, dig?

Thanks and here's to a better tomorrow. For all of us.

Another comment in response to 'A Parent's knee-jerk yammerings:

Initial polling showed Harold Ford handily defeating right-wing conservatives Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant. This was before Ford began any sort of significant campaigning on a statewide level. The general impression that this gave was that the state was open to electing a Democrat due to dissatisfaction with the Bush administration.

However, Corker, a centrist, won the nomination, after which Harold Ford made the conscious decision of trying to defeat Corker by running to his right and attempting to appeal to those right-wings loons who had supported Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant. The result? Independents are splitting between Corker and Ford, as opposed to breaking heavily for the Democrat as they are in nearly every tight red state race in the country. From the get-go, this was Ford's race to lose, and according to recent polls, he's losing it by appealing to religious bigotry instead of the widespread dissatisfaction with the president he has enthusiastically supported for the last 6 years.

So, in short, stuff it.

Sorry to say that it wasn't the Greens who led the Dems here. It was the DLC. It was men like Harold Ford who were willing to compromise any value to avoid actually having to stand up to Republicans and as a result of their spineless performance after 9/11, were steamrolled by Republicans who were all to willing to have opponents willingly embracing their rhetoric. So, a Parent, if you want more Iraqs, more Patriot Acts, more braindead women being held hostage by right-wing loonies, no rights for the GLBT community, draconian immigration policies, reckless tax cuts, and Lieberman-style attacks on the progressive community, then by all means, vote for men like Harold Ford who support all of the preceding (or at least Bob Corker, who, to his credit, actually WORKED to get where he is today). Personally, I would have loved to vote for a real principled Democrat like Jim Webb, Jon Tester, or Claire McCaskill, all of whom are doing incredibly well in 'red states' while *gasp* endorsing DEMOCRATIC principles. I would also have loved to have again voted for Al Gore, another principled progressive who was TWICE ELECTED TO THE US SENATE IN TENNESSEE. I should also note that I voted for Phil Bredesen, TN's excellent Democratic governor, who ALSO got elected by fearlessly running on the principles at the core of the Democratic party, not by rejecting them. Unfortunately, Harold Ford is no Jon Tester, no Phil Bredesen, and certainly no Al Gore. He's a George W. Bush 'Democrat', and when he votes to appoint the justice that overturns Roe vs. Wade in his efforts to ensure his reelection, please spare me your shortsighted condescension when you feel the pain of being stabbed in the back by one of Ann Coulter's, and I quote, 'favorite Democrats.'