Since I can no longer stand in front of a grocery store or library, as I once did, or canvass neighborhoods and hand out leaflets and talk to people, I would be pretty well shut down if it weren't for the Internet. I have discovered that blogs in particular are a great way to exchange ideas, and while they don't substitute for a face-to-face encounter, they do have the advantages of relative safety and also convenience. Also, I don't get sunburned.
Blogs in response to articles on websites like AlterNet and Common Dreams are a great way to talk to people about politics, and they are not simply limited to lefties, as you might think, because people of seemingly many different political persuasions read them (or troll them, as the case may be). I often read comments on them that are just as good as the original article. One of these comments is by someone who calls himself "Oregon Charles," in response to an article about "The Libertarian/Marijuana Conspiracy That Could Swing the Election" by David Sirota. Oregon Charles kindly gave me permission to pass it on. "An incorrigible Democrat, Sirota leaves out another factor in Colorado: Jill Stein is also on the ballot. As a Green, she's an advocate for legalization, too - and a true progressive. I have no idea how strong her campaign there is; I'd guess it's closely allied with the legalization initiative there, as the Pacific Green Party/Stein campaign is in Oregon (pacificgreens.org - octa2012.org). Despite trying to pretend there is no progressive challenger, Sirota is at least honest enough to say that Obama brought his problem in Colorado on himself - and that there is no "conspiracy," despite the headline [gap in original post]... On the larger issue of "lesser-evil" voting: You simply cannot vote for Obama without endorsing his actions so far and thereby driving American politics even further into the dangerous swamps of the right wing.This whole argument is a classic example of short-term thinking that approaches the suicidal. Your vote for Obama has consequences far beyond "stopping Romney." By endorsing the actions and inactions of the Obama administration, it rewards the Democrats for betraying you, for betraying the whole nation, and instructs them to move even further to the right. It isn't Romney that shielded and reinforced the bankers and the Bushies; it isn't Romney that signed the NDAA's suspension of habeas corpus (meaning, in effect, the rule of law) - while rubbing it in with a Bushian "signing statement" that, of course, HE wouldn't do anything like that; it isn't Romney that escalated the war in Afghanistan and spread it around the world; it isn't Romney using drones to assassinate American citizens, and claiming the right to do that anywhere. But it WILL be Romney doing those things, if he gets elected, because Obama gave him the power. If you vote for that, and it's only the beginning, you're voting for your own self-destruction. It's better to at least serve notice to the Powers that Be that you do not approve or endorse those actions, that your vote is reserved for those who stand for your values and self-interest. ANY resistance is to the good. Truth is, we don't know how many people support alternative candidates, because the polls aren't asking. Only the actual vote will tell us that, so far as it's honest. Oh, yes - have Obama and the Democrats done anything about the dangerous black-box voting machines? No? Didn't think so. If the Republicans can cheat in elections, so can the Democrats. The famous big-city "machines", based on vote-stealing, were almost all Democrats. Obama comes from the surviving one, Chicago. This "lesser-evil," "Republicans must be worse!" strategy has had a thorough test. It's prevailed among "progressives" for more than 30 years now. And for that entire time, the Democratic Party has moved ONLY to the Right, dragging our entire politics with it - in defiance of the public's actual positions on the ISSUES. As a strategy, it isn't just a failure; it's a proven catastrophe." http://www.alternet.org/comments/election-2012/libertarianmarijuana-conspiracy-could-swing-election#comment-687376772 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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