It's never not timely for a radical leftist to say this. Over and over again.

For the sake of saving America from the Plutocracy and environmental ruin, I want much bigger changes, many of which I've outlined in specific detail, than President Obama is willing? able? to deliver.

A short list:

A total ban on campaign contributions.
The immediate and total demilitarization and reorganization of all law enforcement agencies, both Federal and Statewide, to weed out control freaks, psychopaths, and serial abusers, and a rigid new set of laws restricting violence by the police.
The replacement of coal-fired power plants with solar power and infra-solar power (such as the night-time solar power plant running in Spain)
The immediate seizing of all abandoned or bank-owned properties for use as either housing for the working class, the poor, or for neighborhood farms. Abandoned commercial properties to be immediately taken for repurposing into vertical farm projects.
A rapid switch to electric powered cars.
A revitalization of the space program with emphasis on colonization research.

I know that's not going to happen even if we gave Obama 16 years. At the very least we've got the Republicans to obstruct him; and anyone with sense knows that there are Plutocrats standing over him threatening to gut the economy, tank the dollar, cause an oil supply crisis, or spark a world war if he does what he wants to do.

But let's just assume the worst. Assume that President Obama is simply a centrist who doesn't really want big changes by anyone's stretch of the imagination. It's silly to assume that Obama didn't want the Public Option but we'll give the naysayers that. Let's just go nuts for a second and assume that Obama supports those drone strikes and all the civilian casualties that have ensued.

Let's just assume all the things that the most radical leftists have said about Obama, up to the craziest (*cough* Nader-ites *cough*) statement of all: "the two parties are pretty much the same".

I will still vote for Obama. I'm still taking occasional time to GOTV, and will be doing it more often now.

Why?

1) It seems the makeup of the US Supreme Court is always at stake nowadays, with each successive 4-year term there's talk of someone retiring. Obama doesn't appoint corporate Statist judges to the bench.

You can just stop this whole thread right here and call that a decapitating blow to any argument in favor of staying home in November, much less voting Republican. But if that's not enough then let's go on to the other guillotine-level point:

2) If Obama loses, we get Mitt Romney in office. A man who clearly represents the threat of more wars, including potentially a nuclear confrontation with Russia. He is unstable, stupid and would be downright disastrous as a world leader.

3) Obama demonstrably stands more with the 99% than the 1%. He wouldn't have hit China with tariffs over their manipulation of the solar panel market and then whupped their ass multiple times in WTO disputes if he didn't give a shit about the 99%. He wouldn't be slamming Mitt Romney about outsourcing jobs out of the country if he didn't care. He wouldn't have started that whole health care reform crusade, if he didn't give a shit. The mandatory insurance blunder? That got forced upon him and all of us. I argue that he would have made the Public Option a reality if it weren't for the GOP. President Obama also pushed for laws punishing companies that outsource American jobs in 2010: another fight for the 99%.

Now I can go on for days about examples where Obama fought for the 99%, but it all boils down to this: I'm a radical leftist with radical ideas and I'm tired of seeing so little progress when so much is needed to save this country, but why in hell would I turn around and set America BACK by staying home in Election Day? How the fuck does that further my goals? How do I satisfy my agenda by taking steps backward and risking a Romney victory? Why would I abandon an incompetent shepherd to get mauled by the wolves? That does me no good. With him gone we're all wide open to the wolves.

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. There's a multitude of wise sayings that should just be common sense here. But everyone here knows there are some folks out there who feel Obama is just too much of a disappointment for the Left to stand with him. I'm one radical leftist who ain't one of those.


The point here? Anyone left who is listening to people like Ralph "Cowering Democrats face defeat" Nader... WAKE UP!!! Anyone left who listens to the "Democrats are no different than Republicans" nonsense... WAKE UP!!! They are different!!! And I hope that after November of 2012 all discussions as to how bad things could be under Romney remain purely academic. You don't want to know for sure how bad things could be. One way to avoid that is to GET OUT AND VOTE for Obama AND Congressional Democratic Candidates on Election Day.

And if by some miracle there isn't a single left-of-center American citizen who remains unwilling or reluctant to vote and get out the vote for Obama, and this thread is totally unnecessary... then my day is made and we are guaranteed a world without Romney as President.