Endorsements, please!

To the extent that personal style has dominated in the presidential election, a contest of "temperament" at the highest level, the above-copied missive from Pat McCrory indicates an appalling lack of dignity and political professionalism. Here in NC we desperately need a governor who won't automatically pander to the "new racist" segment -- people who would never call themselves racist, but who feel perfectly free to gripe about our immigrant/Latino population.  That Johnston County sherrif and his supporters are prime examples. 

I just returned from the State Fair where I worked a booth that promoted electric vehicles.  I noticed many people walking around with McCain-Palin  stickers on their shirts, a large number of Dole stickers, and a significant  number of McCrory stickers.  During the six hours, I saw one Obama sticker, one Hagan sticker, and no Perdue stickers.  As I was leaving, I walked  through the building of small-time, commercial vendors (I have always enjoyed watching the Vegematic presentations), and noticed that the McCain-Palin booth was doing a brisk business.  I did not see an Obama-Biden booth.

I hope that my one-day, unscientific poll is inaccurate.

"Going to the candidates debate now

Laugh about it, shout about it

When you've got to choose

Every way you look at it you lose."

from "Mrs. Robinson" by Simon & Garfunkel 

Like many of you, I've been noticing the many progressive stands of B.J. Lawson and wondering if he's for real. Also like many of you I've been watching David Price support the war in Iraq (couldn't help but notice that the word Iraq is not even on his latest big campaign mailing), support the Bio-Defense lab, and support the anti-Constitutional Patriot Act. I've also noticed a surreal disconnect as fellow progressives tell us that we have to support Price because Lawson may not really be true to his positions when he's elected. So we vote for a guy who has the blood of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi's on his hands and supported the blatant anti-Constitutional, anti-democratic power-grabbing by Bush, Inc.?

In so many races this year, we are in a position that we have to vote for centrist-right candidates because the alternative is to vote for deranged greed-heads who have proven incapable of the fundamentals of governing. Things are so bad that we cannot afford to vote our consciences in so many races, usually by registering a protest vote or voting Nader or McKinney etc. (i.e. somebody who actaully shares our views).

However, the House will be heavily Democratic so not having Price will barely be felt. If Lawson were somehow to be elected, the worst that could happen is he'd be a marginal voice in a marginal party. It's highly unlikely that he will be elected in this great Democratic wave of votes that we will witness, especially from new voters who will be voting for Obama  and then all those other Democrats whoever they are. In the unlikely event that Lawson would get elected, how great would it be to hear a speech on the House floor calling for an end to the absurd War on Drugs or against sanctions which have proven so deadly to ordinary citizens and useless as strategy?

So I urge all those who would like to see this district represented by an actual progressive to vote for Lawson. Send Price and the Democratic establishment the message that just not being an extreme right-wing Republican is not enough. You have nothing to lose.

Someone noted here, or elsewhere, that Terry Sanford didn't exactly run as an integrationist in 1960.  But clearly he was much more the integrationist than Lake.  While it may be true that Perdue hasn't exactly championed immigrant rights, she's certainly not demagoguing it the way McCrory is in the letter jim posted above.  There is a difference.

I didn't mean to post anonymously yesterday...but I hope folks read my post anyway!

 Anyway, in saying that a vote for David Price is a vote against civil rights--Mark, you are totally ignoring Price's support for GLBT rights and women's right to choose, and BJ Lawson's opposition to these issues. Perhaps those civil rights are not important to you personally, but they ARE civil rights issues and should not be ignored in this race. 

I agree with you about Price's stance on the Patriot Act. It stunk. But you are over-simplifying this race in a big way, in my humble opinion.

Elizabeth Waugh-Stewart

A vote for Price is a vote to reduce the speed toward the cliff to 80mph.

A vote for Lawson is not a vote for every last one of his policies, but a painless opportunity to say that maybe we should turn around and go the other way. 

In legislative races, it is important to remember that the individual caucuses with a party.  Lawson would, in the unlikely event that he was elected--but more likely if we try to "send a message," caucus with the Republican Party, he would pursue Republican agendas, and he would not represent our values.  Libertarians and liberals can be thought of as ideologically similar in their shared views on civil liberties.  But libertarians also subscribe to an irresponsible and/or illogical view that accumulated power does not need to be checked to prevent abuse; witness our current financial crisis caused by unregulated markets.  Republican libertarians actively pursue the latter and give lip service to the former.

In this sharply divided political era, the time to send a message--or better yet defeat--Democrats who do not actively pursue the values of our relatively progressive district is during the primary. Although the examples don't always support the position I'm taking here, a good book on the subject is David Sirota's The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington.

 So, if there really is widespread dissatisfaction with Price, let's mount a real primary campaign with a good, electable progressive for 2010.  The time to start is Nov 5th.

The executive branch of government, among many other things, selects political appointees to the many departments of government.  Beverly Purdue may not be who you prefer to see running the executive branch and she does demogogue issues like immigration.  But the governor isn't going to do much having to do with immigration but he or she will be doing a lot of appointments.  Do you want to see the State Energy Office run by Duke Power?  That's enough for me right there, but let your imagination wander on this topic for a bit and if you haven't voted yet, hold your nose and repeat three times as you enter the booth: "the perfect is the enemy of the good."  And how do you measure a protest vote anyway?  Here's a case where a protest vote might be measured by a change in the results.  Once she's elected, work on her and others to modify their stances on the issues where she is not pursuing our values.

Again, the time to get good people on the general election ballot is during the primary. If the progressive wing of the Party hadn't split its votes and energy in the Lt Gov primary race, Dalton might not be the candidate in that race.

I understand the frustration with the Democrats' good-old-boys' network and the corruption that has been rampant in the past several years.

However, as others have said, Pat McCrory is not just some harmless fiscal conservative who likes smart transportation. He has used illegal immigration, gay marriage, and abortion as wedge issues both locally in Charlotte and in his campaign for governor. I don't think the answer for progressives is to vote for someone like him, who will undoubtedly bring a very socially conservative agenda to our state's executive branch.

 Elizabeth Waugh-Stewart