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Please Vote for Obama in November
by Alex Thurston
http://www.theseminal.com/ The wing of the Republican Party that is dissatisfied with both George Bush and John McCain has swung back into view recently. Dedicated, activist supporters of Ron Paul are "quietly [plotting] GOP convention revolt against McCain," the LA Times' blog tells us. The next battleground after their "stunning success in Nevada," DailyKos' McJoan says, is Idaho, where Paul supporters are attempting to take over the state level GOP committee.
If is followers are organized enough, they might be able to pull off a repeat of Nevada and possibly throw a monkey wrench into the downticket races. Both Bill Sali, Idaho's first district represenative, and Jim Risch, current lieutenant governor and the party establishment's heir apparent for Larry Craig's seat, have primaries. Risch, in fact, has seven of opponents, a few of them the run-of-the-mill Idaho Republican kooks (including the Californian who has never been to Idaho), and a few of them fairly serious and committed. A srious revolt by Paul's people, should it trickle down the ticket, might give Risch a bit of a scare in his march to the nomination. Once he gets that nomination (and he almost certainly will) he's going to have to contend with one of two Independent challengers: the elk rancher who has made it his goal in life to harrass Risch (so much so that he decided to run as an Independent, to up his chances of being on the general election ballot), and Pro-Life, a Ron Paul supporter), who has made it his goal in life to be on the Idaho ballot every two years. Is any of this enough to really endanger Risch or McCain in getting their respective nominations? Highly unlikely, but it could make things a little more fun to watch. The GOP brass begged Barr not to run. And Sean Hannity's complete freak out on this clip shows you just how spooked the wingnuts are over this. Make no mistake: this is a huge blow to the Republicans, who are already fighting with one arm tied behind their backs thanks to Dubya, Iraq, the economy and Dubya. But to Paul supporters, libertarians, and other unhappy Republicans, I have a request to make: vote for Barack Obama this fall. If your efforts bear fruit, and you can weaken McCain, great. Thank you. But don't cast your vote for Bob Barr or write in Ron Paul on your ballot in November. Why? Because a vote against McCain is essentially a vote for Obama, even if you cast it for another Republican. So give it to Obama directly, and give it to him as a mandate to end the war in Iraq. We already had one Democratic president who won with a plurality (not a majority) of votes, twice, because of a third-party, right-leaning candidate. And what mandate did Bill Clinton have? What benefit did Ross Perot's supporters reap from their votes? Did they have grounds on which to hold Clinton accountable? If you believe in smaller government, then give Obama a mandate to end the war. Let's elect him not with an electorate divided 43-37-19, as it was in 1992, nor even 49-40-8, as it was in 1996, but with a majority, a real majority, and one that signals to him that that majority wants the war to end. Can we not start there? After the US leaves Iraq, you can go back to calling me a socialist, and I can go back to calling your free market beliefs naive and immoral, and whatever else we can come up with to throw at each other. But without leaving Iraq, you and I will be having those debates in a country that is poorer and weaker than it is now. A country where we worry more about our children's futures, about whether the bridges we drive across will hold up, about whether America is going to remain competitive in science and industry. Let's not send a confused message to the victor of the presidential election this fall. Let's not send the message that we are a country divided and unsure about what it wants, simultaneously pulling in three, four, five directions. Let's send the message that the Bush years are over, definitively, and so is the war. So do your worst to McCain. But if, in early September, we find that the choice still remains one of Obama versus McCain, then please give your support directly to Barack Obama. Give him that mandate, so that he'll know that on at least one issue - the biggest issue of our times, in my eyes - the majority of the country speaks with one voice. Alex Thurston is currently a student in the Master's Program of Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He graduated from Northwestern University in 2005 with a BA in Religion. He can be reached at alex@theseminal.com.
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