Choosing the Lesser of Two Evils

Election madness has gripped the United States like a bad case of Ebola; one minute everyone was cool, and the next they were frothing at the mouth over something that could very well kill them. Well, that was a tortured metaphor, but it seemed great at the time...

But I digress. This mania really is staggering. One has to step back from the two-year plus marathon to the Oval Office and realize that we have no real stake in the electoral process to really understand how utterly batshit insane it all is.

Unfortunately, the worst insanity seems to be coming from the so-called "Left" this time. The mainstream "Left" seems to have one of the more insidious kinds of insanity: the insanity of misplaced expectations. Granted, most of them are genuinely good people, and think they're doing the best that they can for the people of America. But they seem stuck in the delusional fantasy that the US Democratic Party will change its ways and actually represent the people of the United States.

I keep wondering why the liberal "Left" continues to go back to the polls year after year, continually voting for the same Democratic Party that continues to sell them out the moment the election is over with. Then again, there seems to be a very simple reason why the liberal "Left" continues to do the same thing each time expecting a different result: there caught playing the lesser of two evils game.

I've talked to a number of registered Democrats in my local area about there reasons for voting like they do. I ask them what kinds of positions they support, and almost invariably they find themselves considerably further to the left of the Democratic Party. When I ask them why they continue to vote for candidates who do not support their values when there are often perfectly good third party alternatives, I usually get two variations on the same theme.

The first variation tries to rationalize the cognitive dissonance away. "Oh, but they'll never win, so it's pointless," is their response.

The second variation is much more upfront with there pragmatic sellout mindset. A vote for a third party, they say, is equivalent to voting for the Republican Party, and God forbid we should stop rewarding the bad behavior of the Democrats lest the Republicans win!

I disagree with Republicans on just about every value and issue that they hold dear, but one thing must be made clear: they are not Goose-stepping Fascist Demons from the Ninth Circle of Hell. This is not the German Weimar Republic in 1933, and the NSDAP is not in danger of coming to power...yet.

When I think about this, it is even more ironic. Hitler used the very same argument during his rise to power in Germany. He made the same lesser-of-two-evils argument against the German Communist Party in the 1932 election, and it had as much merit then as it does now: absolutely none.

When it comes down to it, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party differ on very few issues. Both are overwhelmingly pro-corporate and anti-labor, and quite willing to sell out any and all constituencies to protect their business allies. The Democrats have failed to distinguish themselves from the Republicans on the illegal and unjust Iraq War, the doomed to fail global war on terror (I refuse to capitalize those words), the Patriot Act's illegal domestic surveillance programs and on any of the major domestic issues.

We are given vague promises about "health care plans" and promoting the welfare of the "middle class", but when we dig right down to it, this is all we have. Neither of the Democratic presidential front runners have offered a universal health care plan. They offer us a plan that they assure us will make health care "affordable to all", but then fail to give us anything but a package of corporate subsidies and vague guarantees.

Obama and Hillary have both distanced themselves from their past support of truly universal single-payer health care systems, even though the problems with the health care system continue to get worse, and an ever increasing number of Americans cannot even afford basic health care, let alone emergency care should disaster strikes.

Continually choosing the lesser of two evils is a short sighted and self-defeating approach that will only ensure that evil is the rule. This mentality is dangerous in its implications, and must be avoided lest we find ourselves standing on the brink of continual disaster. These issues must not be avoided because it is convenient to do so. We cannot sacrifice our principles on the alter of political expediency. The Left must find the courage to weather the storm and fight for what is right, not what is most convenient.