Strategic Voting Options for those who felt the Bern

Strategic Voting Options for those who felt the Bern

I felt the Bern a lot longer than others who’d never heard of Bernie Sanders before 2016. In 1972 and 1975 Bernie and I were delegates to the conventions of the People’s Party that nominated anti-war hero Dr. Benjamin Spock for President (1972) and Black Panther Party Education Minister Margaret Wright for President (1976). See http://janbtucker.com/blog/2016/06/04/i-like-bill-but-i-back-bernie-feeling-the-bern-since-1972/ where I wrote extensively about that history.

The concept of a Trump presidency scares the living daylights out of me….even more than a Hillary presidency….and if I actually thought my vote would make a difference in California I’d have to think about voting for her. Her direct role in legitimizing as Secretary of State the military overthrow of the elected President of Honduras alone disqualifies her for me. I did double major in Political Science and Chicano Studies for my B.A. and completed 22 units of graduate work (with a 4.0 GPA) with a concentration on International Relations and Latin America…so I do sort of know something about the subject. Wikipedia succinctly explains that:

In June 2009 a coup d’état ousted President Manuel Zelaya; he was taken in a military aircraft to neighboring Costa Rica. The General Assembly of the United Nations voted to denounce the coup and called for the restoration of Zelaya. Several Latin American nations including Mexico temporarily severed diplomatic relations with Honduras. In July 2010, full diplomatic relations were once again re-established with Mexico.[44] The United States sent out mixed messages after the coup; Obama called the ouster a coup and expressed support for Zelaya’s return to power. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, advised by John Negroponte, the former Reagan-era to Honduras implicated in the Iran-Contra affair, refrained from expressing support.[45] She has since explained that the US would have had to cut aid if it called Zelaya’s ouster a military coup, although the US has a record of ignoring these events when it chooses.[46] Zelaya had expressed an interest in Hugo Chávez’ Bolivarian Alliance for Peoples of our America (ALBA), and had actually joined in 2008. After the 2009 coup, Honduras withdrew its membership. [Emphasis added]

Uh, yeah, the U.S. would have had to cut aid….to the corrupt and brutal oligarchs who took over the country. Following the golpe (Spanish for a coup d’etat) Honduras’ murder rate soared to become the highest per capita murder rate in the world. For a glimpse of what Human Rights Watch had to say about the coup a year after it occurred:

Human Rights Watch has also received credible reports of 29 cases involving threats or attacks against journalists, human rights defenders, and political activists in 2010. For instance, on April 8, Father Ismael Moreno—a Jesuit priest and human rights advocate—received a text message threatening to kill the family of a female coup opponent who had been raped by police officers. Father Moreno had been helping the woman and her family to leave Honduras. In early June 2010, Eliodoro Cáceres Benitez, a political activist, received three death threats by phone, stating that members of organized crime would kill him and his family. His son went missing on June 13; at the time of this writing, his whereabouts remain unknown. On September 15, police and military members attacked the offices of Radio Uno, a station that has been critical of the coup. They launched tear gas into the radio station’s offices, broke windows in the building, damaged equipment, and seriously injured one person. [https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/20/after-coup/ongoing-violence-intimidation-and-impunity-honduras]

That is the government that then-Secretary Clinton refused to break diplomatic relations with….and that is just plain sick.

In California where I live, the Democrats could dig up the grave (of the bones, I understand he was eaten after the 1968 election) of Pigasus—the 1968 Youth International Party (“the Yippies”) candidate for President, put a suit and lipstick on the pig, nominate him for President, and in California Pigasus could beat Trump. So I don’t have to worry about voting for Hillary; in another state you might not have that luxury.

Using the Federal Public Funding Law as a Guide

Breaking the two party monopoly is a very positive goal. If a third party candidate gets at least 5% of the national vote they get retroactive funding for 2016 and get “minor” party funding for 2020 of up to $20,000,000 plus cost of living allowance (COLA). So if I thought that Jill Stein could get over 5% I’d vote for her even though, as I wrote during the primary [http://janbtucker.com/blog/2016/06/04/i-like-bill-but-i-back-bernie-feeling-the-bern-since-1972/]:

Jill Stein

Why not Jill Stein? In 2012 I discussed her views on immigration and learned she knew nothing about the subject. She didn’t even know about the implications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and especially Article XXI of that treaty on the whole debate. I offered her an opportunity to discuss it with me so she could actually say something intelligent about the subject other than to repeat what the left wing of the Democratic Congressional Latino Caucus tell people they’re supposed to support on so-called “immigration reform.” She had 4 years to bone up and I haven’t heard from her.

There are some okay things and some bad stuff about the Libertarian Party and as to the latter most of their economic views really do suck. But, if the Green Party does not look like it’s going to make the 5% threshhold but the Libertarian Party might, that’s a reason to vote for Johnson and Weld. Since they don’t believe in public funding at the worst it will be amusing to see whether they don’t accept the $20 million they’d be entitled to.

Keeping my fingers crossed for Gloria La Riva & Dennis Banks

Reiterating what I wrote for the California primary:

Gloria La Riva

Peace & Freedom Party: Vote for GLORIA LA RIVA of the Party of Socialism & Liberation (PSL) in the PFP primary. I don’t always agree with Gloria but like me, she’s absolutely despised by the PFP leadership. My slate endorsed her in 1998 when I was the party’s biggest vote getter and she kicked Marcia Feinland’s ass in the primary for governor for which the leadership has never forgiven her (nor me for that matter; our slate decimated theirs that year). Gloria is also well respected in the labor movement and is currently First Vice President of my union local, Pacific Media Workers Guild, CWA Local 39521 (AFL-CIO, CLC).

The PFP leadership – though Gloria beat her primary opponents by an overwhelming vote in the primary – will try any skullduggery to keep her from getting the nomination.

(From California Secretary of State)

In the primary they violated the legislative intent of the PFP Section of the Elections Code (I know because I helped write that law) by soliciting candidates to run against Gloria and tried to put Jill Stein on the PFP primary ballot, also in blatant violation of the legislative intent of those statutes. They’re now doing another end run around the law by having a Jill Stein surrogate speak for her and try to get her nominated over La Riva.

Dennis Banks

Gloria’s running mate is the well known and respected Dennis Banks, of American Indian Movement (AIM) fame.

So all things being equal, I’m taking my cues from Eugene V. Debs and Helen Keller, and voting for Gloria La Riva, because as they said:

“I’d rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I don’t want, and get it.”—Eugene V. Debs

“We the people are not free. Our democracy is but a name. We vote? What does that mean? It means that we choose between two bodies of real, though not avowed, autocrats. We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. We elect expensive masters to do our work for us and then blame them because they work for themselves and for their class.”-Helen Keller

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