I vote Left.

[Barack_America]

It's really quite simple.

When considering candidates, I typically choose the candidate who will take us the furthest left from where we currently are.

Asking me to vote for Hillary this year is asking me to vote for a candidate who will inevitably take us right of where we currently are.

I won't do it. I am a Democrat and I vote Left, not "less Right". I will not be shamed into voting otherwise. Enough is enough. If you want me to vote for a Democrat, then run one.

[Raster]

1. Thank you!

[Barack_America]

3. Thanks. I will not be "brought to heel" this year.

[Raster]

4. Nor should you be. These are our lives.

[fierywoman]

6. thank you!

thank you for "I will not be brought to heel" this year -- I couldn't quite find the words, but you've informed me of them!

[WhiteTara]

35. No worries

you'll be crushed by the heel of the republicans.

[Barack_America]

36. I already have been, to large extent...

...whether they were named Reagan, Bush or Clinton. For Michigan, one could argue the Republican named Clinton was the most catastrophic.

[WhiteTara]

39. Trump, Cruz or Rubio

will make all that seem like a gentle massage.

[Barack_America]

40. I will never vote for Trump.

But he actually is more progressive on trade than Hillary. Bizarre.

[daleanime]

2. Yeahup.....

[SoapBox]

5. I am right by your side.

And my feeling is...not only right where we are but to the Right of it.

No thank you.

No More Clintons.

[Katashi_itto]

7. K&R! Down with 3rd Way, the Vichy Dems

[merrily]

26. Thank you for that. (Much classier than turd way!)

[840high]

8. I'm with you.

[warrprayer]

9. Kick

And repeat!

[forest444]

10. Same here, because what's "left" in the US is just centrist or center-left in Europe, Australia, etc

That's one of the dirty little secrets of U.S. politics (well, to Republicans and some Hillariers anyway).

In most of the rest of the developed world, it's considered downright reactionary to propose a marginal tax rate for the rich of less than 50%. Military expenditures of anything over $500 per capita is "dangerous" - if not "fascist." Their idea of "cuts" to social services is asking pensioners and those on public assistance to pay the postage on correspondence to the respective office. And so on.

We have allowed what Gore Vidal correctly referred to as Crypto-Nazis to frame the political discussion. That's what makes taking your advice, Barack_America more prescient than ever. Good for you, sir.

[Barack_America]

15. Thanks very much.

Those are some very important points, and I look forward to hearing Bernie bring them to wider attention.

[forest444]

16. You bet, Barack.

It's now or never!

[bigwillq]

11. Cool.

I think folks all across America should vote for the candidate of their choice, be it Hillary, Bernie, or other. I support Democracy.

[Mira]

12. That is so very succintly

and lovingly said. I appreciate being able to read it and support it.

[brooklynite]

13. I vote win.

It's really quite simple.

When considering candidates, I typically choose the candidate who will actually beat the Republicans.

Asking me to vote for Bernie this year is asking me to vote for a candidate who will likely take us right by losing the race to a Tea Party cook.

I won't do it. I am a Democrat and I vote Win, not "lOSE". I will not be shamed into voting otherwise. Enough is enough.

[Barack_America]

14. Then, you truly have chosen the candidate who best matches your "values".

Last edited Sat Feb 27, 2016, 01:55 AM - Edit history (1)

P.S. Agree with Elmer. Bad calculation indeed.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

18. If you really "vote to win" you made a bad calculation.

Hillary is destined to lose. Sorry.

[redstateblues]

22. Bernie can't even win the nomination and

He would be crushed in the GE. The last Democrat that ran on raising taxes for the middle class was Walter Mondale- He won one state- his home state MN

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

28. If he loses its only because of people like you

And when Hillary is crushed in the GE, maybe you will then understand your grave mistake.

[scottie55]

32. Except Zero Polls Show This

Keep dreaming.

Hillary is the one that will get crushed.

[Nyan]

17. I vote my values.

I don't see anyone in the race who represent my values except Bernie and Jill Stein.
I'm done with 3rd-way Dem establishment, and they will never get my vote.
If Bernie doesn't get the nomination, I'm going green. Because I would rather not have my vote go to waste by writing in Bernie.

[JohnnyRingo]

20. Congratulations!

Voting green will grant you at least four years of bitching about how a Republican is destroying the working class and the environment! It's too bad you're powerless to do something about it.

I assume if Clinton wins, your work here will be done and you''ll move on.

[JohnnyRingo]

19. You're holding your vote hostage

If everyone doesn't succumb to your demands, you'll kill your Democratic vote. That'll teach us to mess with you.

What If Bernie throws his full support to Hillary, or is even chosen as her running mate? Clinton has already hinted as much. That'll certainly leave you in a quandary, won't it?

[merrily]

29. Will it? Does Bernie own his or her vote any more than Hillary does?

Why should what Bernie does or says put any of us in quandry?

I read so many comments on this board that assume DUers are Stepford sheeple, it's scary! Hillary supporters claiming Bernie wouldn't like certain posts (hilarious that people who've never met Bernie know what he'd think of a post that he'll never see anyway, but never mind that). Do you think we are going to cry if Bernie doesn't like our posts or how we vote? I want him to be President, not the boss of me. Even my husband doesn't get to be the boss of me.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

30. A septuagenarian asking another even older one to be her running mate.

Somehow I doubt it. And if that's what she's hinting then it's another example of her dishonesty.

[TIME TO PANIC]

21. I refuse to vote for a neoliberal republican-lite corporatist.

[redstateblues]

23. The old Republican lite smear

Hillary was the 10th most liberal Senator in Congress. Not liberal enough for the Puritopians but more in step with the electorate of the US-That's one more reason she will win.

[TIME TO PANIC]

25. 10th most liberal Senator in Congress, that's not saying much.

'more in step with the electorate' there goes that myth spoon feed by corporate media, that says America is a center-right country.

[JonLeibowitz]

27. Then I guess she doesn't need the liberals' votes, if she doesn't represent our values. n/t

[Kittycat]

24. Voting my values! From the 2012 party platform

I'm voting for Sanders because he most aligns with my beliefs. Clinton simply does not fit within the democratic party I believe in. I encourage her to take her splinter Third Way party and just make it what it really is, a third party. Because it's not part of the Democratic Party, and I'm sick and tired of them coopting it to drag us to the right, because people are too afraid to vote against them when we can run and support our own candidates.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=101962

This election is not simply a choice between two candidates or two political parties, but between two fundamentally different paths for our country and our families.

We Democrats offer America the opportunity to move our country forward by creating an economy built to last and built from the middle out. Mitt Romney and the Republican Party have a drastically different vision. They still believe the best way to grow the economy is from the top down - the same approach that benefited the wealthy few but crashed the economy and crushed the middle class.

Democrats see a young country continually made stronger by the greatest diversity of talent and ingenuity in the world, and a nation of people drawn to our shores from every corner of the globe. We believe America can succeed because the American people have never failed and there is nothing that together we cannot accomplish.

Reclaiming the economic security of the middle class is the challenge we must overcome today. That begins by restoring the basic values that made our country great, and restoring for everyone who works hard and plays by the rules the opportunity to find a job that pays the bills, turn an idea into a profitable business, care for your family, afford a home you call your own and health care you can count on, retire with dignity and respect, and, most of all, give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger and go even further than you ever imagined.

This has to be our North Star - an economy that's built not from the top down, but from a growing middle class, and that provides ladders of opportunity for those working hard to join the middle class.

This is not another trivial political argument. It's the defining issue of our time and at the core of the American Dream. And now we stand at a make-or-break moment, and are faced with a choice between moving forward and falling back.

The Republican Party has turned its back on the middle class Americans who built this country. Our opponents believe we should go back to the top-down economic policies of the last decade. They think that if we simply eliminate protections for families and consumers, let Wall Street write its own rules again, and cut taxes for the wealthiest, the market will solve all our problems on its own. They argue that if we help corporations and wealthy investors maximize their profits by whatever means.

...snip

But we've tried their policies - and we've all suffered when they failed.

[FangedNoumenom]

31. Vote Trump instead of Hillary if you want Left

At least Trump opposes the TPP.

[Starry Messenger]

33. I don't fetishize my vote.,

I vote for an effective candidate who isn't likely to unleash the ultra right and work like hell in the grassroots.

[TransitJohn]

38. You think Hillary isn't likely to unleash the ultra right?

What color is the sky in your world? They despise her.

[eridani]

34. My thoughts exactly--all up and down the ticket

Though I'm having some trouble with the race to replace Jim McDermott (WA-07). The three most experienced candidates are all pretty left.

[libtodeath]

37. It is sickening to see people here defend Walmart and attack FDR in defense of Hillary.

[Barack_America]

41. I'm remembering your post tonight...

...as I realize that this is obviously more representative of the Democratic Party than I thought.