The Selective Boycott

We are at a unique moment in the history of our country. For the first time in my memory, I know three staunch democrats who are considering voting for a third party candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election. They tell me that they cannot stomach voting for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. They tell me that they are aware that if everybody did this, Trump might win.

But as one told me, “For too many years I have voted for the lessor of two evils. No more!” For the last 45 years, the gains that we have seen, our social safety nets, our environmental protections, the rights of women and minorities and many other issues have been seriously threatened. It is no accident that the Bernie Sanders movement has taken hold. Consciously or unconsciously, many are becoming aware that there needs to be change.

In my earlier writings especially How the Democrats Failed us: Parts I and II, it was made clear that the democrats did fail us and sold out their earlier principles since the 1970s. It was also made clear that the only difference between the democrats and the republicans is one of degree, not one of principle. The democrats are only slightly less conservative than the republicans.

It is time for us ordinary Americans to stand up for ourselves and for those we love and care about. Today, more than ever we must challenge the false assumptions and beliefs that threaten to destroy all that our parents and grandparents fought and paid for. False assumptions of the democrats that undermined their Party and all that we hold dear.

No longer can we afford to vote for “the lesser of two evils.” Those days are over. We need to hold future leaders accountable for how they perform in the offices that we elect them to. If Hillary is elected, we must send a strong message that we will no longer automatically vote for her if she betrays us and follows the policies of the center-right.

I am not advocating voting for a third party this election. Nor am I advocating not voting for the office of President. The stakes are too high in 2016 to use this tactic.

Because a bully who is also a tyrant threatens to become President, it is more than likely that Hillary will win. If she does, we need to make it clear that she has one shot to get it right. If at the end of four years, we see that once again we have been betrayed by a center-right Democratic Party, we have the option of withholding our vote for her second term.

She must hear loudly and clearly that the days of voting for the lesser of two evils are over. We will no longer have our votes assumed by a center-right Democratic Party that believes that liberals and progressives have nowhere else to go “so of course they’ll vote for us.”

I am suggesting though that we use a tool called a selective boycott in future elections. A selective boycott is voting or not voting for a candidate if the candidate is particularly repugnant. This means that in our future elections, we examine the record of each candidate and decide for ourselves if each and every candidate deserves our vote. In other words we selectively boycott unsuitable candidates. But vote only for those candidates who do represent us as we wish.

A candidate does not have to be 100 percent in agreement with our views to get our vote; but the majority of the candidate’s performance should reflect our expectations. If we practice selectively boycotting we might decide that we will not vote for candidate A under any circumstances. We then might choose to leave that ballot space unmarked, write in another candidate, or vote for a third party. We would examine the record of each candidate and make that decision for that particular candidate.

Some examples: if President Obama were running for a third term, I might consider selectively boycotting him for refusing to veto the “Dark Act” and for his support of the TPP. Some other things that he did while in office, I might overlook, but these two are beyond the pale.

If Connecticut Governor Malloy decides to run for a third term, I  would seriously consider selectively boycotting him for his targeting funding for Connecticut programs for public schools, the poor and impoverished and for a variety of other badly needed programs. Rather than tax the one-percent, he decides that austerity is the answer to solve Connecticut’s problems.

I do not live in Florida, but if I did and I lived in Debbie Wasserman Shultz’s district, I would definitely selectively boycott her. Her performance over the last few years is abysmal.

Americans are not stupid; our eyes are slowly being opened. And we don’t like what we see. But we will do something about it. One tool is the selective boycott. The road ahead will not be easy but we will travel it.