{"id":1099,"date":"2004-09-23T10:59:10","date_gmt":"2004-09-23T18:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/09\/23\/which-presidential-candidate-will-i-vote-for-in-november\/"},"modified":"2004-09-23T10:59:10","modified_gmt":"2004-09-23T18:59:10","slug":"which-presidential-candidate-will-i-vote-for-in-november","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1099","title":{"rendered":"Which presidential candidate will I vote for in November?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(I’m posting this partly because I’d like to create a thread that all the third party vs. Kerry arguments can be consolidated on. Folks who are anti-Green, please read this post <\/a>before you tell me that “Cobb can’t win.”)<\/i><\/p>\n

There are two candidates I’m seriously considering voting for, David Cobb <\/a>(the Green Party candidate) and John Kerry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reasons to vote for Kerry:<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kery would almost certainly refund UNFPA <\/a>and get rid of the global gag rule. This would have a positive effect on the lives of tens of thousands of poor women worldwide – it seems likely that there are many women who will be more likely to live to 2008 if Kerry’s in the White House.\n

    On that level, it makes a difference who is elected president in 2004.<\/p>\n

  2. Kerry seems more competent than Bush, and so might succeed in producing less carnage and tragedy in Iraq.\n
  3. There’s a fairly high chance that whoever wins the 2004 election will get to appoint at least one Supreme Court justice, and perhaps more. Regarding many issues that are important to me, not least of which is abortion, who is on the Supreme Court does make a difference.\n
  4. Kerry’s plan to make health insurance more affordable seems to me to be worth trying, and could make a very large difference in my life.\n
  5. There doesn’t seem to be much energy in the third-party movement this election, making voting green less attractive than it was in 2000. (What’s the point of participating in a boycott if I’m almost the only one doing so?)<\/ol>\n

    Reasons to vote for Cobb.<\/b><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Cobb is as good or better than Kerry on virtually every issue I care about.\n
    2. There’s a woman on the ticket, which, all else being equal, I’d prefer to having no women on the ticket. (Of course, it would be better yet, all else being equal, for a woman to be at the top <\/i>of the ticket.)\n
    3. In the long run, trying to grow a progressive movement in this country is more important than trying to win any particular election. And third parties can be useful progressive forces even without winning any elections<\/a>.\n
    4. If progressives automatically vote for the Democrat, then why should Democrats care what we think?\n
    5. Kerry has been a back-stabber on gay rights, supporting don’t-ask-don’t-tell and speaking out for homophobic anti-marriage-equality measures in Massachusetts and elsewhere. (I know he opposes the Federal anti-gay-marriage amendment, but since the Federal amendment had no chance of passing, that’s not very meaningful. When push comes to shove, regarding an amendment in Massachusetts that matters much more right now, Kerry sides with the homophobes).\n
    6. There is next to no chance <\/a>that my vote will make the difference between Bush and Kerry.<\/ol>\n

      So what will I do? I don’t know. Four years ago I voted for Nader<\/a>. I’m still not sure if that decision was right or wrong.<\/p>\n

      Right now, what I’m planning to do is wait until November 1st to decide. If the election looks close at that point – both in Oregon and nationwide – then I’ll vote for Kerry. Otherwise, Cobb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      (I’m posting this partly because I’d like to create a thread that all the third party vs. Kerry arguments can be consolidated on. Folks who are anti-Green, please read this post before you tell me that “Cobb can’t win.”) There … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}