'Lesser Evilism'

Adgita Diaries (presumably Michael or Trace; the post is unsigned) points us to a post by Andrew Levine at CounterPunch, who offers us Better Than Lesser Evilism, Version 2012, a long and systematic examination of the choice facing every American voter who stands to the left of today's much-mutated Democratic Party. It is worth at least skimming this article, not that it will change your mind, but it may inform your decision.

I am persuaded that, by my criteria, Obama is in fact the lesser evil, and I shall close my eyes and vote for him on that basis... after which I shall go home and wash my hands. I have tried hard to muster any enthusiasm for the man... he is, after all, an excellent speaker... but in the long run, I have concluded that in 2008 I was taken in by a very slick marketing package, and that Obama does not have the seed of greatness in him, ready to sprout any moment now. He doesn't, and it isn't.

However, they have absolute gotten to me with the "who else ya gonna vote for" argument. Obama appears to be reasonably solid on a woman's right to choose abortion, and appears determined to trump attempts by fundamentalist crazies and Catholics to interfere with widespread distribution and use of contraceptives in America. He seems at least persuadable on many environmental issues, and does not believe that a scientific response to global climate change is somehow a Communist plot. His record on civil liberties is execrable, worse than GeeDubya Bush's; that's why my hands will need washing after I vote for him for the office of Assassin-in-Chief.

I will not fault anyone who decides not to vote for Obama. But I will remind everyone that a Rmoney presidency, especially if he has at any time a GOP-dominated Congress, could well spell the beginning of the end, a true and unmitigated plutocracy in which all of us who are now citizens will effectively be, at best, wage slaves, and at worst, a starving mob.

I'd say the choice is yours, but the more I read, the more I wonder if that is really so. Nonetheless, if I have only one rock (vote), I have to cast it, and in my long tradition of purely strategic voting, I have to cast it for Obama. Dog help us all in the next four years.