SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
In an effort to evade being, ahem, "muzzled by the multinational corporations and the oligarchy that tries to control every aspect of our society" -- at least warned the bizarre press release we received today from Ralph Nader HQ -- we're here to inform you that Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez will be in town tomorrow. The presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively, will speak/hold a Q&A in THE NAME OF DEMOCRACY at San Francisco State University. Info is as follows:
Tuesday, September 30th, 2:30 pm, San Francisco Rally
Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez
SF State, McKenna Theater/ Fine Arts Building
Suggested Contribution: $10/ $5 students
More Info: (510) 705-8864 or events@votenader.org
Also, LiveJournal user didleycub would like ask Ralph, "[H]ow he thinks he's even remotely relevant to this election?" He goes on to wonder why Nader won't "focus [his] attention on reforming the two-party system?"
Good questions. What's yours?
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I'm just wondering if this chick ever found a date to the luncheon...
Aw, nutz, bad link - I meant this
Christ. What do THEY want?!
Preface: I'm voting for Obama by absentee ballot in Texas (a state that he will likely lose, but which looks like it could possibly be a swing state). But normally I would support any third party or independent with my vote over the alternative: supporting our seriously broken two-party system.
Barack Obama will win California, overwhelmingly; it's definitely not a swing state. That means you could safely vote for a third party or independent without worrying that you're throwing yr vote away.
Conversely, if you knew, without question, as many states do, that Obama was going to lose yr state, a vote for him would mean nothing at all; it wouldn't even count, basically.
It's called the Electoral College.
I'm not campaigning for Nader. But in times like this, it's easy to forget how broken the whole system really is, beyond what can be fixed from the inside. Obama has already made a lot of compromises, and we're sure to see more of that. No one person can fix the mess created by hundreds of years of corruption and political sabotage wrought by greedy Washington, not even Obama.
"minor" parties such as the Greens or Libertarians would get noticed more if the Presidential Debate Commission (made up of Dems & Repubs) allowed them into the debates. The lack of debate access or any kind of mainstream media coverage for the other parties really strangles true democracy in this country.
1. Wow, so this article suggests Nader and Gonzalez ever left San Francisco. Who knew!
2. "Conversely, if you knew, without question, as many states do, that Obama was going to lose yr state, a vote for him would mean nothing at all; it wouldn't even count, basically."
In a more serious vein, before you get all down about your vote "not counting" in certain states, it's worth checking out your state's electoral votes policy, first of all. Some states are not "winner take all." So while my former state of Nebraska for example *always* goes Republican, theoretically the other candidate could take some EC votes away, based on percentage--and this year it's looking like Obama will at least take away a couple EC votes from NE (if not the entire state; and OK sure NE is only worth 3 or 5 EC votes, but still, we're looking at principle here! ;) If NE's in play, then TX and other Republican strongholds are as well).
Secondly, and in my Pollyanna voice, I'd just like to remind you all that even if you are in a state you're "sure" will go to the other side, it's still worth voting. I personally keep getting into conversations with conservative Republicans who swore they'd never vote for a Democrat, but are now considering Obama. So there's definitely a chance that states that traditionally go one way could vote quite differently this year.
With the crisis at the moment, and Nader's fantastic track record "reforming the two-party system" so far (e.g. 2000), what could possibly go wrong?
2:30 in the afternoon on a freaking Tuesday. I see who their target demographic is. Idiots.