While Ronnie Dugger makes some valid points in his article "Ralph, Don't Run", he fails to provide substantial persuasion for voting for the Democratic candadate in 2004. He apparently has forgotten we live in a democracy. No one likes the Bush administration, and one could certainly argue that a Gore presidency would have been "less bad." However, "less bad" is hardly motivation enough to place a vote towards making a person the leader of the U.S. Dugger has fallen prey to the same lines of thinking that suggests there is a substanital difference between "Democrats" and "Republicans." Most of Bush's policies are a continuation of Clinton's, and while there may be a slightly higher percentage of warhawks in the Republican camps, I seriously doubt the world would be much better off with Gore as president. In fact, I doubt anything would be different.

Democracy is pretty simple: vote for the candidate whom you most prefer to take office. The Democrats should look toward presenting a viable candidate in '04 instead of coming up with reasons to vote for them before the names of the players have been announced. This is the sort of inverted thinking (reasoning why not to vote for another) that has disenfranchised voters to begin with.

And, yes, barring a stunning Democratic candidate next year, I'll be supporting Nader yet again.



  posted by S. Parker @ 9:55 AM