No Candidate Left Behind
Barack Obama was not the only African American running for president in the 2008 elections. But few knew of Cynthia McKinney, Georgia’s first African-American Congresswoman and this year’s Green Party Candidate.
In a plurality-takes-all political climate, little knowledge of the third-party candidates is understandable. Many believe that voting for a third party is a waste of your vote, for they will never get elected. In 2000 Ralph Nader allegedly spoiled the Democrats’ chances by taking many of his 2.9 million votes from people who would otherwise have supported Al Gore. In Florida, with a mere 537 votes separating the Republicans and Democrats, this could have been decisive. George Bush got in because of Nader! In 2004, Michael Moore got down on his knees on national television and begged Nader not to run. The sentiment was clear; running against the Democrats in swing states is immoral.
Third parties do serve a purpose. First of all, they remind us that neither of the top two parties are necessarily right — questions are not only either red or blue. Both of the big two have had to add solid environmental policies to avoid losing votes to the Green Party. “When the variety and number of political parties increases, the chance for oppression, factionalism, and non-skeptical acceptance of ideas decreases,” James Madison wrote. Today it is hard to think of him as supporting either Democrats or Republicans.
Coming into the 2008 elections, I was unhappy. After months of overwhelming reporting on Obama and McCain, I was still suspicious. I wanted a president who I knew would stand up against the big oil companies, who would make corporations accountable for fraud and abuse, who would try and distance him/herself from insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists and who would start reducing 700 bases and 300,000 uniformed personnel the Defense Department says we have abroad. Obviously neither red nor blue would even think of these things. So, on Election Day, I decided to look for help choosing a different candidate. I might have left it a little late, but I wanted to know what people thought about the other candidates, so that I could make a good choice.
“Do you know who else is running for president this year?” I asked 77 people coming out of polling booths.
“Was anyone else running?” one lady asked. I couldn’t believe it: she looked educated (if not, she certainly looked rich), and was mere seconds away from having voted in East 90th Street’s Church of the Heavenly Rest. “I didn’t see anyone else’s names.”
“Why should I waste my time with losers?” A male therapist in his 60s asked.
This kept going and going. Of the 77 New Yorkers I asked, only three knew that Nader was running as an independent, most assuming that he was running as the green candidate. Only four had heard of McKinney.
Eventually, at about 8pm, I met someone who was voting for Nader. He was the first dissenting voter I’d met in 14 hours of riding around Manhattan, so I was eager to hear what he had to say about this unpopular choice. His answer was frustrating: “I can’t believe who the Republicans have put up this year, and the Democrats are socialist assholes. I’m just so dismayed with Obama and McCain. This election will turn out to be the start of America’s socialist downfall. But people will vote for Obama, people will feel enfranchised again, and people will become happy again about being American. It’ll be a psychological boost.”
He didn’t know any of Nader’s policies, specifically, but had voted for him in protest. I was tired and depressed about the state of this democracy, but I was also convinced about what I should do. Going into my local voting booth, I put an X next to Obama’s name. That night, watching the endlessly cheering people making eye-contact in Times Square, I thought, “I helped do that.”
It was around this time that Ralph Nader was making his one major television appearance. He was on Fox News, questioning whether Obama was going to be “Uncle Sam for the people of this country, or Uncle Tom for the giant corporations.” It got him more press than anything else in his campaign.
In my diary I asked: “Where will people turn next, when they become disillusioned with Obama?” Of course he’s not going to enact big change. He’s going to make us believe change is possible. But I doubted he could follow through with the incredible wealth of changes he promised.
I found out the answer to that question in Union Square in the June of the following year. There was a man with a sandwich board that said on it “Paris Hilton ’12.” He said she was the only person who was outspokenly for gay marriage during her brief part in the campaign. I told him that Nader, too, had been pro gay marriage.
“Yeah,” he retorted, “but Nader is a political joke.”
