VIEWPOINT
LET TERS
BY R O DOL F O PA L M A
Choose Your Battle
NO CANDIDATE WILL SAVE YOU, BUT SOME
VOTES ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS
I
’m not a fan of HRC.
But I’m no Bernie-for-the-revolution person either.
No election will bring us the revolution we need. Even electing Jill Stein
or Sanders would do the same as electing the “Hope” and “Change” of
Obama.
The ball is still in our court.
And Hillary Clinton is not the same as Trump. I much rather fight the Clinton
administration than the Trump administration.
That’s why I vote for whom I vote. I vote for who I will have to struggle and
fight against. I rather fight against a centrist Supreme Court rather than a right wing
court. I rather fight against Clinton appointees rather than Trump partisans from
the GOP.
I’m not excited about HRC. And I donated to Sanders, (and Stein) but frankly,
he’s too far right for me (and so is she). But I know I’ll never have a candidate I
really like because that’s not what elections are for.
That’s what organizing is for.
That’s why I’ll vote strategically but organize for four years. That’s why my
vote matters, but not as much as what I do for the rest of those years.
Don’t try to tell me, “That’s why we don’t have third parties,” because you and
I know that’s not how this system was designed. We have a system designed to
thwart real direct democracy via voting. We have a system designed to have only
two parties. Not coalitions. There won’t be any third parties for long. We can’t vote
our way out of this mess anyhow, even if we had a dozen choices.
But that’s why we have to keep on fighting using our freedom of assembly,
freedom of speech, and talking to our neighbors and knocking on doors right now.
We have a lot work to do. Many of our neighbors plan to vote Trump. We have
to talk to them and change their minds. This isn’t something that you need to sign
up for. This isn’t something that we need to wait for our “political leaders” to show
us the way. This is you talking to someone else about politics. This is democracy.
This is direct action.
I can’t help HRC run a better campaign. I’m legit worried she’ll screw this up.
But that’s not my role. I wish HRC was an actual leftist. Frankly, Bernie was no
savior either. We cannot win that battle electorally, ever. That’s the battle we win
in the years interim to an election.
But this isn’t about her. This is about the landscape under which we will have to
organize and fight back. This is important and even though I am opposed to much/
most(?) of Clinton’s policies (both Clintons) my vote never means I agree with any
candidate. Because I’ll always be fighting. Always. Because even good candidates
need us to fight.
Because without that organizing, we will never ever get what we need.
No candidate will ever save you.
And we will always need to fight back.
I may not ever be “with her”; but as long as this race is tight, I’ll work to get
her to win.
Rodolfo Palma L. is a three-year South Eugene resident, via Chile (originally), upstate New York and southeast
Michigan. Palma is actively engaged in labor rights, Latinx issues and animal rights, among other justice is-
sues.
during her primary campaign in 2008.
She lost that primary, but she won on
healthcare, because when Obama became
president he picked up the torch and passed
Hillary’s plan as the Affordable Care Act.
Bernie is smart. If he can’t get into the
presidency through the front door, he will
get his policies in through the side door.
He has Hillary’s ear because so many
of us showed that we support him. If we
want to continue our momentum, we can
tell Bernie to keep fighting for us, to keep
pushing Hillary in the right direction.
There is only one presidential candidate
who listens to Bernie Sanders and moves
her platform closer to his goals: Hillary
Clinton. Like it or not, she is our best shot.
Kara Huntermoon
Eugene
INITIATIVE TOOL
The initiative process is a tool that the
people can use when the government-
corporate alliance gets too cozy: A solid
argument in favor of not allowing the Lane
County Commissioners to hamper our
rights to vote on the initiatives put forward
by fellow citizens.
Tchanan Ross
Deadwood
MY NAME IS KESEY
Downtown Eugene¹s central square is
known by just about everyone as Kesey
Square. Even much of the city of Eugene¹s
own published literature refers to the
location as Kesey Square. Almost no one
today refers to it by its official, dull and
uninspiring name, Broadway Plaza (ugh!).
There are other Broadway Plazas
around the country, but only one Kesey
Square here in Eugene. Peter Helzer’s
wonderful sculpture of Ken Kesey reading
to his grandchildren has become a unique
destination and central way-finding marker
in our downtown.
We are asking that you write and tell
your city councilor and our mayor that
you would like them to change the name
officially from Broadway Plaza (boring!)
to Kesey Square.
Changing the name now would only be
an acknowledgement of what has already
occurred naturally, and it would be an
appropriate recognition of an unique figure
in Northwest art and culture.
Cary Thompson & Jerry Diethelm
Friends of Kesey Square
GLOBAL WARMING
If grassroots activism causes local or
state governments to take action fighting
global warming, elected officials at all
levels of government can take note of
voters’ concern about the problem.
But Congress must take effective
measures to fight global warming, since
President Obama’s regulations are
inadequate (see The Economist magazine,
June 7, 2014). The Paris agreement of
December 2015 was weak, because the
U.S. offer was based on the regulations.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL)
headquarters is optimistic about Congress
passing global warming legislation in
2017. In February 2016, two South Florida
representatives, Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-
FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), founded
the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus,
which contains an equal number of
Republican and Democratic congressional
representatives. The caucus will serve to
advance the discussion in Congress.
CCL likes to call its revenue-neutral
carbon tax proposal “carbon fee and
dividend,” since it would not be a tax in the
conventional sense; all the money would
go back to households equally, except a
small amount for administration.
Please tell friends and family about
CCL. Because of the need to win over
Republicans, people living in conservative
areas of the U.S. are particularly important.
Milton Takei
Eugene
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A ugust 18, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com