A Vote For Obama Is A
Vote For McCain
By Jerry D.
Rose
27 September, 2008
Countercurrents. org
As we get ever closer to the November election, more and more of my friends who are Obama supporters are upbraiding me for my support of Cynthia McKinney, on their belief that a vote for her is a “vote for McCain.” Many of them agree that she or some other third party candidate is a better choice than either McCain or Obama for President but has no chance of winning, is not a “viable” candidate, and that I should support Obama as the decidedly “lesser evil” alternative to McCain.
The purpose of this article is to set this argument on its head and argue that, in fact, Barack Obama is not “viable,” and that casting one’s vote for him denies third party candidates of any opportunity to defeat the GOP ticket.
For purposes of this
argument, I am willing to waive a very substantial doubt that Obama is indeed highly preferable to McCain as President. Whether Obama or McCain is elected, we will have no interruption in the bipartisan agenda of American imperialism with its wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and perhaps Pakistan and Iran and who-knows-where; we will have no single payer health insurance; we will see no diminishment of class and racial inequality in the country. In the argument of last resort for an Obama presidency, that he not McCain would be nominating Justices for the next Supreme Court vacancies, a Democratic majority in the Senate could avert such a travesty with a McCain presidency as the appointment of Justices who would complete the process of dismantling Roe v. Wade.
But that’s not my argument, really. Let’s say hypothetically that, like McKinney or Nader, Obama would be a MUCH better President from a progressive perspective.
But no matter, the
same argument as that against third party candidates because of their lack viability can, in my opinion, be applied to the candidacy of Barack Obama.
Why would I argue that Barack Obama is not “electable” as President? A variety of considerations lead to this conclusion. Perhaps the smallest of these is the reluctance of principled progressives—pp’s if you will— (as I consider myself to be, along with most writers and commentators on Counter Currents) to support a candidate like Obama with such vacillating or missing positions on key progressive issues as he pursues a “centrist” campaign along with the Democratic Leadership Council. We pp’s may like to think of ourselves as the wielders of substantial political power, but the proof of that in the electoral pudding of votes for progressive national candidates is seldom to be seen.
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