The News from Gridleyville

My political voice has been quiet a good while—not calm, just silent. Raging inwardly.

But after hearing about voters casting ballots for third-party candidates, I feel compelled to speak out. Especially to those liberals who plan to vote for Jill Stein instead of Kamala Harris because they can’t tolerate the Biden administration’s support (material if not spiritual) for the Israeli destruction of Gaza. That voting option is terribly wrongheaded, for at least three reasons:

1. Yes, the right-wing Israeli government is guilty of, if not genocide, something pretty close to it. But we don’t know that Harris would support Israel as strongly as Biden has. More important, it’s undeniable that Trump would be far worse! (Saying this does NOT indicate that I have the least bit of sympathy for Hamas. In the Mideast conflict there’s enough wrong on all sides for Dante to add another circle of Hell.)
2. There ain’t no purity in politics. People who search for an untainted politician might as well wait for the Resurrection. If and when Jesus returns, we can all vote for Him. Until then, we’ll be choosing between greater evils and lesser ones. Shades of gray, always.
3. When someone says, “I can’t bring myself to vote for So-and-So,” they are making the election about themselves—that is, about what they need to do to feel moral and upright. Trouble is, the current election is about the whole damn country, maybe the world. It’s not the time to work on self-realization. Let’s be 100% virtuous in our personal lives; volunteer for charity, donate blood, pick up every piece of litter we see. But we must not pretend that such absolutism can help democracy function.

Huhhhhh. (Long exhale. Quiet for a bit now.)