Recent posts (or forwards) to the list have stated, in one case, disbelief "that election of Bush will make things one bit worse for those who are poor, hungry, [etc.]", and in another case, that Reagan's administration was "responsible for creating...mass homelessness (nationwide)." But the point is not the possible contradiction in these views. When we vote on Tuesday (or voted, if with an absentee ballot), we are, if clear-eyed, helping to decide between excess deaths and suffering over the next few years. For, that "no difference" between G. and B., D. and R., can be that teensy morsel between lesser and greater evil that determines whether some among the worst off go off the ledge. On the other hand, a continuance of an, effectually, rightwing demoplican politics is, as usual and worse, taking us all down, and there may be--possibly--with Nader and the Greens a chance, if labor (inc. new labor forces) get involved, to build a third party (--though, on the other hand, with a risk of siphoning the strength and hope from the anti-WTO etc. movement--). This is not new; we have said all this. But don't cover it up with "there's no difference" or "it won't affect the poor, the hungry" if Bush wins this round--or that voting for Nader not Gore won't affect the tally. If you vote for Nader, you are risking, in fact, throwing n women and babies on the street, denying m persons health care, killing a certain number, over the next few years--and perhaps setting up for same (or, yes, perhaps for better times) in the long term. If you vote for Gore, you are risking a somewhat lesser death toll, probably, (domestically), of this sort, for the short-term, but losing a chance for the long-term. (Not voting, of course, doesn't solve this.) The people out on the street (I don't mean demonstrating), or in danger of it, know this. My concern is not that we, on this list, don't--I think we do--but that we need to "know" it, to recognize the stakes, non-abstractly (I don't mean nonintellectually), in the same way. Paula
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