I got so disgusted with corporate America that I had to leave the country after the Bu$h selection. I live in Mexico now, and live very simply. A small house, totally solar power, ride my bicycle to get groceries, use less than $20 per month in gasoline, am a vegetarian, and have learned how to live on $400 a month. I pay no taxes to the US, because I will not support the war or the Bu$h government, and use almost no corporate products. Essentially, a full on protest strike and boycott. I have very little income, which I make through playing music in Cantinas, and am basically living on savings, which I was fortunate enough to be able to get together when I worked. I do not use banks, so have no credit or bank cards, have no phone, and basically no connection with the system in the US. The truth is, I made preparations to leave the US before Bu$h got selected, and unfortunately made an informed guess about that. I've been an activist, and was beaten with nightsticks at the WTO protest in Seattle, and was in Cancun in September, and sat down in front of bulldozers when I twelve years old when they came to destroy my forest.
My point here is, if you want to protest against the system, then really do it, and be effective. Make the necessary sacrifices if you really want to practice what you preach.
IMHO, voting third party this year is absolutely not an effective way to protest. After reading what I described about myself, I hope you understand that I probably believe in many of the same things that you do, and am dedicated enough to a better, saner world to do try to do my little individual part in attempting to make it better in the best, or maybe the only, way I know how. And y'all probably are, too.
I think I pretty much understand all the arguments against voting for John Kerry - the war and Patriot Act votes, DLC, too conservative, Nafta, WTO, etc. But Kerry got an Environmental Hero award from the League of Conservation voters, and he really does have a great lifetime voting record.
We must not be like the asshole Reagan Democrats who were responsible for the defeat of Jimmy Carter, who was a good man and a good President. These Reagan Democrats also voted against Walter Mondale because he was "too liberal". Those Reagan Democrats, who apparently had some weird conservative ideal, managed to fuck us all by voting into office a dangerous fascist puppet. These fool Democrats that voted for Reagan set the public mentality and the social progress of our country back for decades. We will be exactly like the Reagan Democrats, and only fuck ourselves, our families and our friends, if we vote third party and this allows Bu$h and his fascist goons to continue their assault against everything that was ever really righteous about the United States.
All of us on the left need to unite behind John Kerry. Everyone reading this knows beyond the shadow of a doubt how dangerous Bu$h and the neocons are. Sometimes compromises are necessary for the long term achievement of goals.
All of us liberals, liberal Dems, Greens, Socialists, Reform Party voters, liberal independents, etc., absolutely must insure that Bu$h is not allowed four more years.
If you think four more years of Bu$h will lead to some type of leftist resurgence, uprising, or revolution, I firmly believe you are mistaken. Bu$h and the neocons will crush you with force and propaganda, deprive you of all of your civil liberties, and force you to go underground or flee the country. I hope no one harbors a romantic fantasy that this would be fun and exciting. It would rock your world in a really harsh way.
We all know John Kerry is the only person, at this time, that can defeat Bu$h in November. It is our reality.
For this election, let's all stick together, and form a mass united front against fascism. We will have the freedom to work toward our ideals after Bu$h is gone if we maintain focus. We will not have this freedom if Bu$h remains in power.
Let's unite and kick that GD motherfucking fascist asshole and the rest of these nazi wannabes back into the slime they crawled out of.
Well, that's it.
http://www.opednews.com/michaels032604_3rd_party.htm