My Name Is Rez Dog And I Am An Undecided Voter

My ballot arrived in the mail the other day but I am still undecided how to cast my vote for President of the United States.  Not that it matters.  I live in solidly Democratic Washington where Barack Obama has an 11 percent lead.  My state's electoral votes are not  in contention.  Much like Arizona's and Virginia's electoral votes were not in contention in all previous presidential elections I knew before moving to Washington.  At least this time around my single vote is irrelevant in favor of the lesser of two evils; Virginia and Arizona were dependably Republican.

Let me make one thing clear:  my indecision does not extend to Mitt Romney.  In no way do I want to see him elected.  If Washington were remotely competitive, I would vote Obama, as I would if I still lived in now highly competitive Virgina.  Not because I am pleased with Obama as president but because Romney would simply accelerate the distribution of wealth upward and the burdens of civic society downward.  Obama is always preferable to Romney.  That is not in question.

But Obama over Jill Stein?  If I follow my heart and values, Jill Stein walks away with my vote.  I was impressed with her in the alternate first presidential debate presented by Democracy Now!  She spoke in Olympia last weekend and gave me some good reasons to vote Green Party for president.  The Green Party platform is a vision of an America far closer to justice and founding principles that either major party candidate offers.  She would end our "slavery to the fossil fuel economy", "bail out students, not banks" and end the George W. Bush militarism so readily embraced by Obama's administration.  How could I not vote for such a candidate?

If I needed more reason, Stein pointed out that a vote for her and the Green Party strengthens an existing that has potential to offer an alternate voice.  I know the odds against a third party in this country.  Not all that good.  But long odds do not diminish the appeal of creating a voice for what Jill Stein called "truth, justice and solutions".  Nor do long odds lessen my commitment to creating that alternate voice.  Casting a vote for that seems more meaningful than padding Obama's victory margin in Washington.

So I guess I'm not entirely undecided.  I'll keep an eye on the Washington polls; if nothing changes between now and election day, I will vote Jill Stein.

Till then I won't say for sure.