Tim Wise: Of Broken Clocks, Presidential Candidates, and the Confusion of Certain White Liberals

[jsmirman]

100. It's the craziest shit to me

if you're a "liberal democrat" there's a hell of a road to take before you find yourself voting for Ron Paul.

I am frustrated with our President, and even more frustrated with our party, but the idea "gee, I'm really thinking about voting for Ron Paul" has not only never crossed my mind, but fits in the category of "things I never think about and am unlikely to ever think about."

It has never even crossed my mind that Ron Paul should actually be President. It is unthinkable that I would vote for anyone other than Obama, although the idea of a protest non-vote might cross my mind, but it would be more a protest against the uselessness of my vote in a place where the electors to the electoral college have been decided the very moment the polls open.

Any liberal who would actually vote for Paul is nuts. I mean, even if they are a single-issue voter on say the legalization of marijuana, they're not thinking if they think that even if Paul were President, he could serve as any sort of engine to push legalization through the Congress.

It also seems like, why are people drawing an equivalency between "liberals who are willing to talk about Ron Paul" and "Liberals who could ever imagine voting for Ron Paul"???

I fit in neither group - the only thing I might think is that it's not horrible to have him on the stage with the other awful candidates, because he serves as a constant reminder that any Republican claiming that the eight years before these three years didn't exist by just declaring that they are now actual conservatives is propagating some bull-shit.

I can also say, emphatically, that on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, we were far from chagrined to meet someone who declared themselves a Ron Paul supporter. "Great! Now get five more of your conservative friends to vote the same, if we absolutely can't convince you or them to vote for Obama." These were votes we were not losing; they were votes not going to McCain.

And am I a "Ron Paul supporter" if I tell you that I am fervently wishing for a Paul third-party campaign? It would be nothing but helpful in November. That does not add up to support of Ron Paul - it's a matter of pragmatism and being able to count.

This witch hunt is beyond nutty to me. And no, don't get all excited that you've got me in a tizzy - you haven't. I'll just calmly leave DU, and spend my time at a site where I can express concerns or questions about a President who (at minimum, because he's got me where he wants me) has no reason to fear that I will vote for anyone else - without getting linked to some nutty position I can't even imagine supporting.