Why a former Obama voter just can't vote for him again.

[Embar Angylwrath]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc ... ma/262861/

Good read. There's a lot of talk on these boards about rabid blindness on the part of conservatives (justifiably so), and here's a perspective from the left that maybe left leaning voters should consider.

[Partha]

Ok, so a Republican won't vote for Obama. This is not news.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Oh man, they're a pretty strong Republican too...

[Lurker]

here's a perspective from the left

That article isn't a "perspective from the left". Not only isn't Friedersdorf liberal, he doesn't lean left at all. He's a right leaning libertarian.

Here's a great rebuttal from Jamelle Bouie, a liberal writer at The American Prospect.

Friedersdorf refuses to vote for a “lesser evil,” but the fact of the matter is that Gary Johnson is also a “lesser evil.” Johnson supports immediate austerity and a move to balanced budgets for the 2013 fiscal year. He would cut 43 percent from the federal budget in all areas, and call for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. He supports “sound money”—which is code for tight monetary policy—and opposes entitlement spending, and most functions of the welfare state. He opposes Roe v. Wade—thus making him an effective opponent of abortion rights—and does not believe that health care is a right.

A world where Johnson could be elected president—which, Conor says, would be a good outcome—is a world where these things are possible. His domestic policies would throw millions into hardship, and his hugely contractionary economic policies would plunge the country—and the globe—into a recession.

Whether he sees it or not, Friedersdorf is making a moral calculus by supporting Johnson. For him, the terrible effects of Johnsons’ policies on ordinary people—recession, increased joblessness, increased homelessness—is worth a world where the United States does not conduct drone strikes. I disagree, but unlike Friedersdorf—who sees the similar calculus among liberals as evidence of willful blindness to the consequences of drone strikes—I don’t think this makes him indifferent to the concern of poor people.

Friedersdorf lists three things that disqualify Obama. Because of those things he's going to support a candidate who not only can't win, but who's policies would cause incredible harm to millions of Americans, with the end result being a Romney Presidency that Friedersdorf agrees would be much, much worse. Friedersdorf's position isn't much different than the Naderite's in 2000, and it's comically absurd.

[Ddrak]

Unless they're going to vote for Romney instead, it makes very little difference because the electoral system for US President is broken like that.

Dd

[Harlowe]

Where the heck do you get that this person is left-leaning? Because they voted for Obama once? Is that the only criteria? Did he actually vote for Obama or does he just want to prop-up his position from a faux-perspective?