Many of the individuals who gave a blanket endorsement to Nader in the 2000 election have signed a petition urging “support for Kerry/Edwards in all swing states, even while we strongly disagree with Kerry’s policies on Iraq and other issues.” Many warned at the time that some sort of “strategic voting” would be needed in 2000. (See […]
A Path out of the Reversible Straitjacket of the Political Duopoly
In perhaps the best mainstream report during the election season, the typically firmly D.C.-based Steve Inskeep went knocking on doors in Colorado and came across a woman, Ili Bennett, who told him she’s felt some excitement from both Elizabeth Warren — and in the past, the Tea Party. Said Inskeep: “I think you’ve hit on something insightful […]
The Perennially “Unusual” Yet Somehow Ubiquitous Left-Right Alliance: Towards Acknowledging an Anti-Establishment Center
The AP reports: “The House narrowly rejected a challenge to the National Security Agency’s secret collection of hundreds of millions of Americans’ phone records Wednesday night after a fierce debate … The vote was 217-205 on an issue that created unusual political coalitions in Washington, with libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats pressing for the change against the Obama […]
An Electoral Strategy Based on Love
The idea of VotePact.org is a simple one: principled progressives and conscientious conservatives — instead of cancelling out each other’s votes, one for Obama, the other for Romney — should make a pact in pairs and both vote for the third party(s) that better reflect their beliefs. But the implications of it can be far […]
The Indefinite Detention of the Progressive Voter
Earlier this year President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law. It allows for the indefinite detention without trial for any U.S. citizen deemed to be a terrorist or an accessory to terrorism. Some might have thought that there would be wide-spread revolt among people who voted for Obama against legalized indefinite detention. […]
Laying out the Case for VotePact on Al Jazeera English
From last night (Oct. 23) — Sam Husseeini talking about VotePact after the first third-party debate moderated by Larry King and organized by Free and Equal Elections.
How Media and Pollsters Pundify the Public and Marginalize Actual Ideas
As so many follow “the opinion polls” in New Hampshire, keep this in mind: They don’t measure opinion. The tracking question being continuously asked is some minor variant of “If the election were held today, for whom would you vote?” This false hypothetical of a question compels voters to pick the candidate who they think […]
Talking about Ron Paul, VotePact and Progressive Voting Strategies
Here’s a recent interview on KPFK with Sonali Kolhatkar.
Turning Holiday Awkwardness into Political Rebirth
Holidays can be awkward for a lot of reasons. One is that many spend time with people they seem to fundamentally disagree with politically. Progressives have Republican voting relatives who are at family gatherings, conservatives see people who vote for the Democratic Party and holiday events. One approach commonly followed is to simply avoid talking […]
How Obama and Trump Imprison Voters — and How To Break Out
A group of demonstrators recently got into an Obama fundraiser to protest the imprisonment of Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks cables. They sang a song to Obama. Part of it went: “We’ll vote for you in 2012, yes that’s true / Look at the Republicans — what else can we do?” Manning is not […]