HOBSON'S CHOICE OR MORTON'S FORK

     My first vote in a presidential election was 1972. George McGovern, a decent man but uninspiring candidate, was the Democratic challenger of Richard Milhouse Nixon. History books will tell you that Nixon was a grasping, venal, politician that did anything to hang on to power. In short, a typical Republican. There were however, Republicans who were not typical of their party. They no longer exist. Rep. Paul McCloskey was one of those decent Republicans. He ran a primary challenge to Nixon's re-election that year. I registered Republican so I could vote for him in the Oregon primary. I had no friendly feelings for Republicans, but Congressman McCloskey had two admirable qualities to my young self then: 1) he was not Nixon, and 2) he was against the Vietnam war. Unfortunately he had no chance in his Quixotic challenge. 

     The downside for me was that it took me years to get off of the Republican mailing lists. For the country, Nixon was re-elected and forced to resign a year and a half later to avoid impeachment. The Vietnam war was continued until 1975 when congress finally pulled the funding. By that time too many American servicemen were dead, injured, exposed to Agent Orange, and suffering what later became known as PTSD. Unremembered by most of us Americans, millions of Vietnamese were killed, maimed, incinerated by napalm, and genetically altered by Agent Orange. 

    Young people then as now, desperately wanted a new political dynamic. We had been allowed to vote at 18 in 1970. We were thought to be a strong voting block, then. That did not happen. Instead, many of my colleagues stayed home from the polls rather than vote for a too moderate democrat such as George McGovern, who also opposed that war. 

     We Democrats are a disappointment to the democratic wing of the Democratic party. Since the death of FDR we have been too timid to embrace that Democratic-Socialism that was the heart of the New Deal. We almost had it with JFK and RFK, but they were assassinated. In the meantime, corporations have scooped up the socialism. Call me crazy, but I don't think that is the way it should work. We need to take the Country back from the corporate socialism tat we have become so comfortable with. Unfortunately this too, is Quixotic. In the meantime, we need to elect enough Democrats to pass the legislation that will allow us to change the rules that allow Republicans to practice various forms of voter suppression in "Red" states. We also need to remove the electoral college that have allowed two Republican presidents to be elected in my time, in spite of losing the popular vote. Not all of the Democrats elected in various states will be acceptable to the left wing of my party. The difference between the left wing that is dear to my heart, and the right wing is that, the right wing is unlikely to moderate. 

     It is a Hobson's choice: a choice of taking what is available or nothing at all. Specifically, the choice between a Democratic centrist and a Democratic leftist is a Hobson's choice; the choice between a centrist Democrat and a Republican is a Morton's fork: two equally unpleasant alternatives. One of those choices is still better than the other.