Really? Would you please explain how, if one believes firmly that the principles and values one adheres to are good, fair, and just, that one's actions would not follow?

This is exactly the disconnect I, and other radical progressives, have with the liberal Democrat politics of capitulation and appeasement. We keep hearing from the liberal Democrats how the left in America has a history of splintering apart at the first sign of weakness or drift to the right in their political party.

One reason why I have decisively left behind the notion of voting for Green Party candidate Cobb, is because of just that sort of fallacious argument being put forth against those who chose to stand by their principles and do what they believe is the right thing.

There is a faction within the Greens that has capitulated to the Democratic Party, to appease the Democrats' wrath with Nader and the Greens for the 2000 election. That faction is being led by David Cobb, and the Green Party members who argued for and won the right turn at the June convention in Milwaukee, where Nader/Camejo were shut out.

That overreaction to the events of the 2000 election is what is at the root of the current progressive movements splintering, not the rightward movement of the Democratic party. Times change, even if the tired old dirty tricks and tactics of the imperial liberal Democrat reactionaries stay the same.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Green Party. For that very reason. The Green Party is now mostly made up of middle class liberals with very narrow, naive, and narcissistic worldviews, and mostly single issue "in my backyard" politics. They fear the rigorous, theoretical and practical debates which are, IMO, the great strength of the progressive left, not it's weakness. I have never been a "within the system" activist. My political and social activism has always been to agitate, educate, and organize for change from outside the political system, not inside it. I have participated in successful and unsuccessful campaigns for change. That is par for the course.

My fears about this election are rooted in an understanding that the threats to the global environment, global justice and world peace come not from a single person or party but from systems, and that no matter who is elected, the systems of empire and capitalism remain in place. Both Bush and Kerry are committed--by their words and deeds--to the maintenance of the capitalist empire. I recognize there are differences between the two, and some of the differences aren't inconsequential. But those differences are not substantial enough for me to vote for Kerry, because of his clearly stated goals of fighting to defend the middle class (at the expense of the working class and poor) and the capitalist empire that protects the interests of the middle and upper class.

Bush and Kerry are both pro-war candidates. Both pledge virtually unconditional support to Israel in its brutal and illegal occupation of Palestine. The two candidates' hawkish rhetoric on Latin America and the Caribbean is virtually indistinguishable. And both Bush and Kerry are committed to continuing to spend more than $400 billion on an insane military system that has little to do with national security and much to do with the maintenance of empire and corporate profits.

On foreign and military policy, Bush and Kerry differ mostly in style and strategy, not fundamental aims. Much is made of Kerry's commitment to traditional alliance politics, which some have pointed out would likely be more effective in the long term than Bush's go-it-alone strategy. If Kerry rebuilds U.S. alliances with other powerful states, especially in Europe, it might allow the empire to continue for a longer period.

That is why I am both sticking to my radical progressive principles AND doing the right thing, by voting for Nader on November 2nd. Lucky for me I have that right in Minnesota. Unfortunately for many Nader supporters, they have been deprived of that right by the liberal Democrat lawyers who have fought so undemocratically to keep Nader off the ballot in the other battleground states.

I'll also be here doing the same work I have always done on November 3rd, opposing either Kerry or Bush after the election, just as I did before the election. It makes no difference to me which one is president, because it is the systems I am fighting against, not just the systems leadership.