In last week's Presidential primary election, I got to vote for one of my all-time favorite elected officials. Suffice it to say, it wasn't Barack Obama, and it wasn't Hillary Clinton. It was, in fact, Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Representative from Atlanta, Georgia, now a candidate for the Green Party's Presidential nomination. If you've been tuned into my blog since the old days, you may remember reading my long-winded entry about Cynthia McKinney's fight to win back her seat in Congress in 2004. After serving another term, she got defeated once more, and has since defected to the Greens.
On Super Tuesday, McKinney got 26% of the Green vote in California with 7,000 votes, but was eclipsed by continual candidate Ralph Nader, who took close to 17,000 votes for 61%. And although McKinney fared better in a couple other states, she may not emerge the Green's candidate in the November election.
Not that the Greens matter at that point anyway. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nader got 2.8 million votes in the 2000 election, and after the devastation of Bush's coup of the "hanging chads," he only brought in 500,000 votes in 2004. Needless to say, this year, with the tide turned against Bush and his War on Everything, the Greens will get even fewer votes, on account of progressives' and liberals' sheer terror of tipping the cart to the Republicans. Since I live in a state that more than likely will go to the Democrat, I can probably get away with a Green vote in November. Of course, if I lived in Florida or Ohio or somewhere, it'd be a different matter altogether.
Point being, I like being excited about someone I voted for for a change. Holding my nose and voting for Kerry in 2004 made me almost hate myself. But why blame the victims of the system (people like you and me who'd like to vote for decent candidates) for what are essentially structural problems, like the Electoral College, the two-party system, campaign finance policies, mega-corporate lobby power, etc?
I'm babbling now, 'night.
xo
1 comment:
& then there's ralph again, circa Independent, just heard this a.m. kinda late? kinda whatever arready? just wondering. think mayhaps my 'reassess' might've been little informed. anyway, c. mkinney is kinda awesome. so, holding the breath now, still.
p.s. scotch is good, i believe in it : }
/schmend
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