Not much of a choice for Americans
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I think I speak for many Americans who voted for Barack Obama when I say I feel betrayed. And I'm not just referring to Syria. Still, considering the alternative in the last election, I might have done the right thing by voting for Obama.
Leftist writer Noam Chomsky has written that if you vote in a state where you know which presidential candidate will win, you might make a symbolic gesture by voting for a third-party candidate. But if, like me, you’re voting in a toss-up state, it is justifiable to vote for the lesser of the two evils.
On the other hand, Chomsky writes that you might vote for the greater of two evils on the grounds that, if he wins, he’ll be so bad that he’ll unify the opposition. When a particularly bad president such as George W Bush won, the only opposition he unified was the Democrats, while not doing much to help any third-party candidate.
Until America does away with the electoral college and has run-off elections when no one gets over 50 per cent of the vote, we will continue to have to choose between the horrible Democrats or the almost equally horrible Republicans.
Eric Bahrt
Pattaya
