« Still Wondering | Main | Boing Spring Boing »
Kerryyyaaaaaawwwwwwn wins
Subject line of today's email from the MoveOn PAC :
Urgent: Kerry Needs Our Support
Taste in my mouth: Bitter. Disappointed. Moving toward resigned, I guess. I see what MoveOn is doing, and it's great. I just wish all that money and effort was going to go toward more significant changes than Kerry will ever be able to represent.
But, and so, Super Tuesday is over, the votes are counted, Edwards is calling it quits, and Kerry's now all set to start choosing a running mate. Can you say "politics as usual"? I just can't understand how anyone could get excited by this.
In better news, Dean crushed all opposition ... in Vermont, where he won a fat 58% of the vote. Yeah, so it doesn't mean much, but it's great to see Dean get at least one win, anyway.
Kucinich also won a primary yesterday -- the primary for his congressional seat. He claims he's going to stay in the race, and Sharpton says the same. Note how coverage of these campaigns is only showing up at small, local news outlets. It's a shame, but now that Kerry has locked things up, it's probably going to be nearly impossible for any other Democrat to get any attention for the next year or so. Perhaps Ralphie's got something, after all...
The current situation gives me an idea: Voters in the rest of the primaries should vote for Howard Dean. Crazy? Sure, but listen, lots of people (at one time, huge majorities) claimed they supported Dean, but then they changed their minds for a lot of reasons. One of those was that people decided that they liked Dean's message, but they didn't want him to be President. Fine. Now they can vote for his message and not have to worry that he'll actually win. So voters can now start giving Dean delegates, not so that he can get the nomination, but so he can go to the convention in July with enough support to make Kerry accountable.
But how would that work, exactly? I mean, now that Kerry's locked up the nomination, if Dean or Edwards or anyone else continues to pick up delegates, is there any way those delegates could make a difference? IOW: How the heck does the convention work?
______
Posted while listening to: 3rd Planet from the album "The Moon & Antarctica" by Modest Mouse
Posted March 3, 2004 02:30 PM | election 2004
If it's any consolation, I'd worry about a Kerry-Edwards ticket in a way I never would have worried about a Dean one. But I'm sorry it's a disappointment. A Dean campaign would have had a lot more passion, for sure.
Posted by: A. Rickey at March 3, 2004 06:49 PM
Ok, yawn about Kerry. Fail to get excited.
But four more years of a march toward fascism is nothing to yawn about. Four more years of packing the court with judges vowed to overturn every civil right acquired in the last 50 years is nothing to yawn about.
Yawn all you want, but make sure you don't fall asleep on the way to the voting booth this fall?
Politics as usual? You are likely to young to know what that means. Politics as usual was the Bush-Dukakis race. Politics as usual was Nixon. As said by a former Nixon operative, this cabal in the White House makes the Nixon gang look like rank amateurs. These are not usual times. They are dangerous times for the future of our country and our former government.
Maybe it's because I've never occupied the far left, being too much of a pragmatist, but I don't see how anyone who supported anyone besides Bush last time can't look at what's going on in this country and be furious. As they say, if you're not angry, you're not paying attention. And if you aren't paying attention, you need to be.
I liked a lot about Dean, believe me, but he isn't the nominee now. Kerry is, and he may be our last best chance for keeping this country free.
Posted by: Alex Fallis at March 4, 2004 12:38 AM
Ah yes, I was pretty sure I'd hear a little of this. I was going to put a disclaimer in the above post about how, no matter how much of a limp fish Kerry might be, I'll vote for him because four more years of Bush would be an intolerable threat to the future of life on this planet. And it's true. I'll vote for Kerry. There, I said it.
Now I feel dirty.
I say "politics as usual" because Kerry is as "establishment" as Dems come. He's taken piles of money from big corporate interests, just like Bush. He voted for Bush's war. He voted for the Patriot Act. He dissembles about protecting the environment and worker's rights. Yep, he's going to be a much better President than Bush, but he's not going to do anything to reduce the stranglehold money has on politics today, nor is he likely to do much to really help the 3/4 of Americans on the bottom end of the economic scale. Kerry represents politics as usual because politics as usual put him where he is today, and why would he mess with success?
But I'm voting against Bush, ok? And that means voting for the Democratic nominee. I'll do my duty, but I just don't see much reason at the moment to feel very enthusiastic about my "choice."
Posted by: ambimb at March 4, 2004 06:29 AM
Brutus was "establishment" too. The influence of money in politics won't go away over night. Continuing to be involved in organizations like Dean's, supporting efforts like those of Russ Feingold and John McCain, and continuing to be aware and educate thinking people will have an impact.
Posted by: Alex at March 4, 2004 07:47 AM
