My Recommendation for Super Tuesday: DON’T VOTE. STAY HOME.

This is not an anti-voting diatribe.  I never advocated staying home from the polls on principle (unless it can be part of a visible and organized boycott, which it never is), and I’m always sympathetic to the what-the-hell approach to pulling that lever on Primary Day and Election Day.  I am always willing to lend an ear, and sometimes an opinion, when there seems to be even a miniscule political difference between candidates.   (An ear, that is, to those who feel they must select a Democrat, since I don’t think that I ever encoutner people who would seriously be agonizing about which Republican to choose.)   But this year, at this time, there is absolutely none.

And it’s a shame that we’re left with absolutely no choice this time - for some reason, it’s much worse, much earlier, than it was in 2004.

There was one guy up to a short time ago who actually took a decent stand on some issues.  His name was Dennis Kucinich.  In 2004, I held onto my membership in the Democratic Party (even though I’d long ago given up any belief or faith in that entity) so that I could vote for him as my lame little protest against the usual candidates when I had a little extra time and nothing else to do.   But this time around, even if I had registered in time to vote in the New York City Democratic Primary, I wouldn’t have the chance to vote for him, because he dropped out.

Then there’s this guy named John Edwards.  His political record showed him to be just about the same as the other “major” candidates, but at least he paid lip service to the problem of growing economic inequality, even approaching the issue of class division in this country.  In terms of what he was saying, he was far better than his two adversaries among the “major candidates”; at least there was a chance he might have gotten a few people thinking or talking about certain things that the other two wouldn’t.  For that reason alone, I was thinking that if I had actually registered in time to vote in the Democratic Primary, I might be tempted to vote for him.  But Edwards took that thought away from me with his hasty departure.  So, there’s no longer a John Edwards on the ballot anymore either.

That leaves two candidates between which there is absolutely no political difference!  (And sorry if I’m repeating myself…)

Sometimes I think that I’d actually like to see Hillary Clinton win it because Obama is such a fake.  The fact that he is fooling some people into thinking that supporting him is somehow “progressive” could very well make him more dangerous to the left.  But really, what’s the danger to the left these days, anyway, considering that the situation can’t get any worse?  There is no left left; it will have to start from scratch; there’s nothing left for these delusions about Obama to ruin.

And, of course, no one has any such delusions about Hillary, I wouldn’t think.  The only people who would consider Hillary progressive or liberal (let alone a leftist) are the hard right wingers and all the people they’ve duped.  But there’s no point in my talking about them, because most of those people are utterly incomprehensible to me.

So, more than ever before, more than in any other primary, we have Tweedledee vs. Tweedledum.  If anybody sees a real political difference between them, let me know.  (Oh, yeah, Obama supposedly opposed the war in Iraq - though in 2004, I seem to remember him saying that he didn’t know how he would have voted on granting Bush those powers.  But I don’t exactly see Obama being at all anti-war in other ways - he wants to expand the military and he said he would bomb Pakistan.   He admired military men all his life, and he loves Ronald Reagan.  How is he any less an imperialist war monger than Hillary Clinton or any of the others still in the running?  And by the way, how’s his great healthcare plan?)

So, as far as I’m concerned, even if you are a voter and a reformist and you are far more “moderate” than I am, there is no point in voting on primary day.  (And once again, I hope I’m not repeating myself too much…)

And come the General Election, I might as well say it right now:   I personally would not pull a lever for either of the major party candidates, whichever scoundrels finally get into the final slots.  I, personally, will probably be voting for Ralph Nader again.  (Yes, the rumor is that he’s probably planning now to run again.)   And if Ralph decides not to run after all or he does or says something that disgusts me, I’ll vote for one of the obscure socialists.   There’s also a chance that I’ll stay home from the polls on Election Day if there’s a real organized boycott (unlikely) or if I have something better to do.

And those in an nutshell, my dear (three or four) readers, are the Commie Curmudgeon’s recommendations and endorsements for the Vote of 2008.

(I suppose people still will be voting, but I wish we could all find something better to do.)