Third Party Musings.
As the election has drawn closer it seems that more and more folks are adapting a plague on both your houses mentality and wishing in blogs and out loud that there was a third party candidate or that they are not going to vote for Obama because of X. X, mostly involves the use of drones to blow up people in places we are not officially at war with yet like Yemen and Pakistan. We are told that the folks being blown up are terrorists but as the Professor grew up during the Viet Nam war (a depressing large segment of the Professor’s life was had the United States shooting at someone somewhere) where the rule of ‘if it’s dead it’s VC” has probably been updated to ‘If it’s dead its’ a terrorist”.
It’s horrible sickening and really something that needs to be stopped.
However Romney has not said word one about not using drones, and he’s been actively beating the drums for a war with Iran (sure Iraq and Afghanistan didn’t work out so well but third time’s a charm!) and has promised to reinstall torture.
Not the most reassuring alternative.
Which brings me to the point of today – it’s too fucking late to start wishing for a better deal now. The time to have started this was probably back in 2010 at the earliest and more like 2009 when it because obvious that Obama is a Lieberman Democrat with an massive urge to cut social security as long as he can get the GOP to agree to and call it bi-partisan. We have been fortunate in that the GOP has been too crazy to take up his offers. But the time to go 3rd party or to even mount a challenge inside the Democratic Party was then – Not now not in October. It’s too damn late for this cycle.
What we have now is a choice between disappointingly bad and worse than we could possibly imagine. I am confident that a Romney Presidency would make W’s second term in office seem like a triumph of good governing.
What needs to happen is that things have to start moving now – as in the day after the election. And it will take a long damn time to do – Lincoln wasn’t the first Republican presidential candidate is was some self promoter and rather dangerously slick fellow named Fremont – of course he lost but the GOP learned and went on from there.
And it can’t just be president - it would make no sense to elect a left leaning president without out at least some folks in the House in the Senate in the same party. All this takes time and dedication a plan and a lot of long term thinking. One has to be willing to put up with being ignored or pilloried or having to deal with the kind of political shannagains that the established parties will put in ones way. And disappointments and losing elections. And all that.
It does not entail having a hissy fit in October when the slates have been long set.
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