I’m voting for Elmo. or maybe Beck.

But maybe not fascist. So, you’re totally right, and theres no reason to debate it any further

Frankly you sound about as frothy as his “lolcat” supporters.

Have you actually read anything he said or written?

AT, that sounds like something H. Clinton would say as she lays into Obama.

I have a pretty cynical view about campaign rhetoric. It’s all cut with heaping of bullshit. But that’s nothing new, is it? Since when have we had an election that wasn’t?

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/rant on

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I’ve long held the opinion that if anyone wants power bad enough to run for any office, then they 1.) are too crooked to deserve it, 2.) will necessarily feed everyone a constant stream of bullshit to get it, and 3.) should be emphatically denied it.

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Hmmm…should I shoot myself in the right side of the head or the left?

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If you don’t like any of the candidates, then you could simply not vote. One way to avoid having to choose between two evils is to refuse to choose between two evils. Every election, people enthusiastically encourage us to “make our voices heard”. Well, my voice is silent and glaring; they can take their dog and pony show and shove it.

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/rant off

As for the lesser of two evils, I will vote for the candidate who supports the largest number of the views I support:

• end the US military occupation of Iraq
• implement single-payer health care
• preserve reproductive choice
• legalize civil unions for same-sex couples
• repudiate torture
• re-implement the FISA court system
• close Guantanimo
• try all people accused of being “enemy combatants” by the standards of either US military law or US civil law
• implement a progressive income tax system

I don’t see anyone on the Republican side who comes close to either of the two Democratic candidates in matching my list of priorities.

Two evils? Meh. I’d say my choice is between evil and progress in the right direction.

Uh, OK. Whatever.

“China’s sitting back, progressing by 22+ fighter jets per day and laughing their asses off. “

Indeed. And China holds a large share of the US national debt, and thus has our government by the short hairs. Why is that? Because of the current Administration’s policy (aided in most years by a Republican majority in Congress, and in the rest by a Republican minority threat of filibuster) of “borrow and spend.” Tax cuts never pay for themselves. Without comparable cuts in spending, they only increase the deficit. We must either agree to cut spending or raise taxes or both. I say both: stop pissing away billions on the useless and futile military occupation of Iraq, and restore some progressivity to the federal tax structure by letting the Bush tax cuts lapse.

AT: I’m glad you took my post in the tone I intended, no malice or vitriol, just smartassery.

I think the political parties we have to choose from are two sides of the same somebody’s gettin’ screwed coin, and either way it lands, we’ll all end up with the same result. At some point we need to start looking at the bigger picture and wake up to the fact that our superpower days are numbered; the future belongs to China and India.

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“…some progress is a lot better than none at all (or moving backward).”
Eaves, while this is true, everyone defines progress in different ways. I don’t consider constantly whining, on a national scale, (over what boils down to trivial details) progress. I think it would be exceedingly progressive and beneficial to *revert back* to a presidential/national model of reluctant power, humble service, and quiet dignity.

Neither was the comment it was used to reply to, which was essentially “if you don’t get what you want now, maybe you will later.”

*shrugs*

” . . . wake up to the fact that our superpower days are numbered; the future belongs to China and India.”

Well, that’s certainly too extreme. I don’t think the US or the European Union are gonna just disappear.

“I think it would be exceedingly progressive and beneficial to *revert back* to a presidential/national model of reluctant power, humble service, and quiet dignity.”

That’s certainly a sweet dream. Hold onto it.

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Yes, I think the U.S. *will* disappear AS A SUPERPOWER in the next 50 years.
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Joel, you’re picking apart my posts without grasping my point, and frankly, I’m tired of trying to explain it. I realize I’m a bad explainer, but lemme try one more time:
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NOT VOTING IS A VALID THIRD OPTION.

No, I got that point. I just think it’s trivial and didn’t think it needed to be dignified with a rebuttal.

But since you insist: Most Americans don’t vote in most elections. Do you think you’re saying something insightful? Does it make you feel special to do what most people do?

Not to put too fine a point on it, people died in this country during my lifetime defending the right to vote (google Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney). I regard your attitude as a descration of their memory.

Your mileage may vary.

:)

I like the symbolic idea of *not voting*, as a civil disobedience stance, but the thing is the message is just too washed out. I think the point is made more clearly by voting for Darth Vader or Voldemort or something like that, but they don’t usually let you write in presidential candidates.

If so, ahem, may I offer Atomictumor?

even if you can’t get excited about a candidate, please consider that issue. (uh, unless you like the shift to the right. then I’d be fine encouraging you to sit this one out.)

I had not considered voting for AT before. What is the AT platform on the issues of beer vs wine, leaving the toilet seat up vs down, and going shopping vs going buying?

He flirted and smiled that twinkly smile and then left us all alone. sigh….

I can pick one party over another and then it gets all fuzzy.

So AT? Seat up or down?