Let's Start a Third Party! (Not!)
Well I sure wish that Barack Obama, back in the mid-'90s, had decided that the Democrat party had gotten too conservative. I wish he would've said, after welfare was cut drastically back and Clinton had said that the 'era of big government is over': "I've had it. I'm going to start my own third party. The Democratic party has taken the black vote for granted for far too long."
Because if he had, we wouldn't be facing a Barack Obama presidency today.
(Btw, it's been nice to see the elated reactions of black Americans over the age of 50 - those who had experienced systemic, structural racism in their lifetimes. They got to see a black president elected and that's the one good thing in all this.)
Martin Luther King Jr. showed the way to effective evangelization in a political setting. He didn't start a third party. He marched, he protested, he prayed, he preached. And eventually one of the major parties, the Democrats, listened.
But I realize that the way the world usually works is the major parties lose their most ardent people because those folks see the gulf between their beliefs and a major party and see that gulf as too big to bridge.
That's not to say that we shouldn't use our votes to protest. John McCain wouldn't have received my vote had he nominated a pro-choice running mate, nor would I have voted for Giuliani. I suppose everyone has to draw their own lines.
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