The two-party trap: Voters are asked to choose between two candidates. Both are unpalatable. Neither represents their interests. But they’re convinced to participate in the system with the argument that, if they don’t vote for the slight-least-awful option, the slight-worst one will win and make things worse.
Like Voting for Goebbels
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
4 Comments. Leave new
The comment space at gocomics was full, so I’ll mention it here: I really liked the astute comment that Mr Rall was crazy, since the poster had checked, and neither Goebbels nor Goering are on the ballot.
I fear the majority of Americans are either Obamabots or anti-Obamabots.
A minority of us are so myopic we can’t see the huge differences between the candidates. After all, Bush, Jr opened Guantánamo, Obama didn’t.
Bush, Jr sent in troops to invade Iraq, Obama replaced those ground troops with drones. Big difference.
Not to the goatherds killed by the troops or the drones, but Middle Eastern goatherds can’t vote in US elections, and the ones the Bushes or Obama killed are dead anyway.
But what to do? The US is, by far, the strongest, richest nation in the world. Someone responded to my pessimistic comments to a previous cartoon that the US is run by the people who get the majority of the votes.
They said that the US is run by a tiny cabal. No name was given for the cabal, so let’s call them the TryLiteral Commission. In ’08, the 10 – 20 of them said, ‘What would look good? We know, we need an African-American, one who has proved he’ll be a ‘Distinguished Gentleman,’ and there’s no one who’s proved that better than Obama.’
The trouble with the TryLiteral Commission theory is that the US has safeguards to ensure that the votes actually get counted, at least most of them, and that it’s random which party gets the Presidency. All fake? Some think so, but those who think that all votes in the US are fake mostly think that Bush, Jr drove to the WTC in his pick-em-up truck and filled the elevator shafts with explosives, then projected a holographic image of airplanes on 9/11. (And they should be Randists, since their understanding of physics rivals hers.)
It would be nice (as I’ve idly wished before) if there really is an evil TryLiteral Commission wrecking the world, and the overwhelming majority are very close to rising up, overthrowing them, and bringing in an era of prosperity for everyone, if only we can provide the requisite spark. But I can’t believe that given the annoying facts about the state of the US that confront me.
So what to do?
The US has the resources (and majority support) to crush any revolution.
So the only options I can see are a) not to vote; or b) vote for the lesser of the two weevils.
And the lesser weevil in this election is Obama, since he kills people more cheaply than Romney would.
Thrift, Horatio, thrift!
That’s the best we can do.
It appears that you are a single-issue voter. The choice is much more complex than “Who can kill for less money?”
You want elections that mean something? Get rid of the enablers. Get rid of the Whimsicals. Any revolution is useless without first exterminating the enablers, and that means the Whimsicals must go.
Round them up.
Put them on national TV.
Execute them.
Purification is the first step. Only then can we move forward with real change.
Silly, silly plant- absolutely no one is interested in the kind of change you’re selling; you know- the kind that involves turning this country over to your right -wing masters.
*pats your head* And while your psychopathy around those who call you out on how full of crap you are and how your strategies are awful, failed recipies for disaster; while its cute, it’s time for you to run along now- there’s a grown-up discussion going on.