The Nader effect

Please, longtime readers, do not be shocked by the appearance of politics on my blog. Though I generally avoid the subject due to my profession, I am a citizen, too, so I have a couple thoughts (which will be vaguely worded so as to avoid easy Googling) on today's activities.

Today we elect a governor in my fair state. The incumbent is widely unpopular. His major-party challenger is fairly far to the right. And of the three third-party candidates, two are actually quite credible. So D and I found ourselves having the Nader conversation last night. Though the incumbent is expected to win, the third party candidates have been surging, raising the question that their supporters will siphon votes from the incumbent, leading to a victory by the neanderthal.

So, what to do? Neither of us fancied voting for the incumbent. Nor did we enjoy pondering the possibility of the neanderthal running the state for four years. But I am tired of voting to be safe, voting out of fear of the scary Other guys. I wanted to vote for the person I think would do the best job -- a radical concept, I know. So I spent last night poring over the third-party candidates' websites, and we made our decisions. If our votes for one of these women means that the incumbent loses and the neanderthal wins, so be it. Our legislature is solidly in the incumbent's party, and we can survive four years. But I'll be damned if I'm going to let the major parties continue their fear-based monopoly on our democracy.

And, with that, we return to nap and nursing blogging.