My choice

A friend of mine saw Dennis Kucinich speak in Los Angeles, and came away inspired by his words to take a stand for what is good and fair and just in the world. What, she asked, is my choice?

Well, my personal choice is to begin the long and difficult task, which will probably take at least several decades, of undoing the vast amount of damage done to us and the world by George Bush and Dick Cheney and their administration, and I will begin (or continue) to do that by doing absolutely nothing which will get in the way of a Democratic candidate winning back the White House in 2008.

To that extent, I will support a candidate who can win, the one who comes the closest to my own personal views but, most importantly, who can attract the votes of a sufficient number of Americans to beat the Republican candidate. We're fortunate that we're in a pretty good condition to pull that off, since the country is tired of Iraq, distrustful of the Administration, and beginning to become dispirited about the economic problems which have started to become sharper and more damaging. This means that it's no longer entirely necessary to be completely obsessive that our candidate is the absolute best possible choice, since we have some more of a margin to win.

Still, we cannot afford to throw away this chance by taking on someone whose negatives may outweigh their positives, someone who provides an easy target for the negative scorched-earth campaigning that's sure to come their way, someone who is so lightweight that he or she cannot be taken seriously by the electorate, or someone who is so idealistic and unrealistic that he inspires people who share his ideology but will not attract enough others to win an election.

I'm not interested in idealism, I'm not interested in inspiration, I'm not interested in high-minded speeches that preach to the choir, I'm not interested in empty payback or wish-fulfillment, I'm interested only in reality-based evaluations of the deep shit we're in, and realistic plans that will start to get us out of it. I want words and ideas and people who will attract the most possible voters so that Democrats can control the White House and the Congress for the foreseeable future, the minimum possible time needed to make some progress on the huge project of saving us from the Bush/Cheney disaster.

That's it. A good speech is nice. A great speech is nicer. A brilliant speech will make me cry, but the most important things I want from a candidate is to win and start to make things better. A plan to do good deeds, and stand up for lofty principles, and inspire the people to the better angels of their nature is all fine and good, but it doesn't mean diddley-squat if you can't get elected and put it into effect.

Joe Biden, as I've said repeatedly on this site, will never be President. Rudy Giuliani will never be President, and Dennis Kucinich doesn't have a prayer in heaven of becoming President, so I can't see any reason to waste even this little amount of time on considering him.

I've got ideals, and I think they're pretty good. I hope that when we get back into power we'll continue to be guided by them in everything we do -- but first we need to get that power, only then can we start.

[Thanks to Breeze]