This Week's Editorial(6/27): A Note to the Lefties

"Sometimes you just have to play the game." My mother said this a lot when I was growing up. I'm sure someone more famous has also said it, but that's not the point. A friend from high school, one of the most intelligent people I've ever known, didn't play the game. Didn't do his homework because he didn't need the practice, spoke back to rude teachers, got sent outside to count bricks, all because he thought the rules were dumb. He was right; a lot of them were dumb. But now he's 27 and wishes he'd done well in school and gone to college and had a better paying job. He wishes he'd played the game.

What the hell does this have to do with politics? Some of us on the left are like my friend from high school. We don't play the game. We like to play along for awhile, then when we find a flaw in the way the game is run, we pull the rules out and talk about how unfair and stupid they are. We don't play to win.

One of the reasons Republicans are so successful in getting their candidates elected is that they play to win. Though a lot of Republicans have been complaining about Bush in public lately, they generally don't air their dirty laundry in public. They bitch and moan about their candidates to themselves, but they eventually vote for whoever the Republican candidate turns out to be, because (to them) that person is better than the unspeakable alternative, the liberal. Then, in public, they bitch and moan about how awful the Democrat's candidate is and how he'll raise taxes and expand the government and generally make your life hell.

We don't do that though. We bitch and moan to everyone about our own candidates. I don't want to vote for Kerry because he waffles. Because he's not pro-gay marriage. Because he's not as far to the left (or as far to the center) as I want him to be. Because he eats meat. Because he has funny hair. I'll be honest, I would rather vote for a nice, progressive, pro-gay marriage, steadfast non-waffler with nice hair, but if I vote for a Kucinich or a Nader (neither of which have nice hair, by the way), I'm not helping get rid of the unspeakable alternative, George W. Bush.

But the Game is Rigged!

There you go, waving the rules around. Yes, it is. The two party system is outdated. There is no possible way that two parties can accurately represent all the different views and ideas and values of the entire American population. But is there really no difference between the parties? That's what I thought four years ago when I voted for Nader. Boy, was I wrong! Think about it; would Al Gore have taken us to war with Iraq for a bunch of made up reasons? Would hundreds of troops have died in Iraq? Hell no. There's a big difference.

Part of the problem is that some progressives fail to see the big picture. If a candidate doesn't agree with all of our views, we cast him off as a Republican in Democrat's clothing and we move on to either support a candidate that's unelectable or stop supporting anyone. We expect there to be one magical electable candidate who supports all of our views, and when that doesn't happen, we start the bitching and the moaning and the waving of the rules.

Let's look at gay marriage, for example. "I don't want to vote for Kerry because he only endorses civil unions. I can't in good faith vote for someone who doesn't endorse full marriage rights for gays and lesbians." A few of my friends have said this. I respect their conviction, but I think they're not really seeing the alternative. If Bush is re-elected, he will try to AMEND THE CONSTITUTION to ban gay marriage. The constitution! Remember that document that states the way our government runs, the one that's been in effect for 215 years? Bush wants to change it so that it promotes discrimination. Does that scare the hell out of you? It should. Is a vote that's not for Kerry really going to further attempts to get more rights for gays, or will it ultimately undermine them?

Kerry and his proposed policies are not a cure all; no candidate's policies ever have been. Real change cannot not happen overnight. Kerry is a part of step one. Step one is to get George Bush out of the White House. Step one is to stop the bleeding. If we don't play the game this year, we may hemorrhage. Who knows how much blood we'll have lost by 2008.