13 thoughts on “I’M NOT VOTING FOR BARACK”

  1. me either. i’m voting for cynthia, the fierce black woman who’s actually on the ballot.

  2. she makes me have more confidence in barack than i would either…

    @ ghostleg… cynthia IS a fierce black woman, but she has no chance in hell of winning (or even getting to 5% public financing status). that being said, if you care about third party candidates (or the people who would be affected poorer by a mccain presidency than an obama presidency), vote obama.

    forgive me if it offends, but any vote that isn’t for obama is terribly privileged, in my opinion. life is a lot harder for people under republicans. it’s not perfect under democrats, but the difference is felt by many. will it be felt by you?

  3. @ fortunato…

    i saw michelle in pttsburgh with no teleprompter.

    she wasn’t acting, she was being. being AWESOME.

    (she mentioned artists and musicians in a crowd with few!)

  4. Dear James.. the best actors don´t need teleprompter. I am not saying she will be a bad first lady. i just said that this couple of actors are the best in the decade. And I respect good actors, maybe could be interesting to know who is the director of this amazing performance.

  5. james,

    don’t get me wrong, i sincerely hope obama wins, and if i lived in a state where my electoral college votes were in doubt, i’d be voting for him. life under a republican government is measurably worse than under a democratic one, and yeah, i would of course feel it like many others.

    the one nice bit about this stupid electoral college setup is that i get to actually vote my conscience on occassion, and this is one opportunity i will be gladly taking it to vote for cynthia mckinney, rather than voting for the admittedly far lesser of two evils, but nonetheless, someone who i fundamentally disagree with on many key issues (death penalty, israel, potentially opening fronts in iran, pakistan etc…).

    still i hope he wins. does that make sense?

    not voting for obama = privilege. ouch!

  6. as someone who was a “nader trader” back in 2000 (voting for gore in WI while a friend voted nader in MA), i hear you, ghostleg.

    that said, this year’s popular vote does mean something, if you believe in “mandates” and such, so even though i live in deep blue massachusetts, i’m still gonna be casting a vote for obama. moreover, as much as i’d like to support a third party candidate, i frankly can’t imagine a better choice for prez than this obama guy (leftier as i’d like him to be). far right as we’ve been ruled in recent years, i don’t kid myself about this country’s ability to actually turn left. not now anyway.

  7. thanks wayne,

    you raise what i think is the most important point (assuming obama wins tomorrow): his mandate and how he can be held accountable by the huge numbers of progressive folks who are voting for him.

    looking at the simply awe-inspiring obama “ground game” i wonder if there is any way to leverage some of that organizing and base-building to hold the man and the party accountable. it seems to me that the christian right were quite successful in getting their vote’s worth out of the republicans and i sincerely hope that the progressives can do similarly of the democrats.

  8. i’m satisfied by both responses to my critiques, and appreciate and agree with wayne’s addition… i’m definitely all about down=ticket races and mandates this year.

    and it was a hard journey for me (i was a nader trader in 2000, too), but i really think a lot of my indignation was misplaced tacticality and the lack of a barack obama…

    my claim about privilege comes from examining my own in past electoral decisions, and hearing a lot of old arguments come out, particularly in the radical community.

  9. “i just said that this couple of actors are the best in the decade. And I respect good actors, maybe could be interesting to know who is the director of this amazing performance.”

    yeh, either that, or there’s no actual “acting” and “directing” going on and the rightists’ lame attempts to dismiss and diminish their opponents because they didn’t get their way are getting really cloying really fast.

  10. i sure hope obama keeps me on his email list. the network they built was extremely powerful and could continue to be as we get started with the work ahead — not least of which is holding O&co. accountable in their progressive promise — so keeping those channels open & active seems crucial.

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