Please, Won't You Be A Democrat?

Political pragmatism has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to learn out of class as an undergrad. I had to learn it as a Senator during my two-terms at our Student Government. Four years ago (I now work for a man I campaigned against during the election). Four years ago, as a UNF Freshman stomping around the Hall, I proudly cast my first vote as an adult in the General Election. My vote was solidly for Ralph Nader, something I trumpeted until I found out who won a month later.

My vote counted. A lot. The official score gave Bush 537 more votes than Gore. However, 19,488 Floridians voted for Ralph Nader. Had 3% of Florida Nader voters not felt so disenfranchised by the Democratic Party, Al Gore would have been President and their would have been no invasion of Iraq. The EPA, UN, and HUD would still be relevant. No children would have been left behind because of tax cuts for the rich. There also wouldn’t be an Attorney General with such blatant disregard for our Constitution and for a woman’s right to choose – in fact, John Ashcroft would have remained That Guy Who Lost to a Dead Guy in Missouri. Dick Cheney would have just been another former official sucking taxpayers dry as CEO of a government contractor, not the former CEO of the only contractor in Iraq.<

The Democratic Party is still not where it needs to be. It lacks the leaders of yesteryear and instead has weak willed political wind-veins like Tom Daschle and John Kerry at the helm of the party, who never put up serious opposition to the tax cuts, Iraq Invasion, the PATRIOT Act, or the abolition of the 40-hour work week for millions of Americans. The reason Democrats did so bad in 2002 mid-term elections was because they wanted to be Republican-lite. So now we’ve got an elitist billionaire who supported the war running against an elitist billionaire who sponsored the war. I can understand how many of you who identify yourselves as leftist and generally populist would feel left out of the election. I beg you though, cast your vote Democrat. Don’t sit at home and don’t vote for Nader. Kerry isn’t an inspiration to any of us, but he’s a step in the right direction. Voting purely on conscious will feel good for a few days, but damn it’ll suck three and half years and 13,000 dead Iraqi civilians later.

Tags: Treyopia Current Events Spinnaker Kerry Democrat Democratic Party Florida Elections polls weakness regain