Why vote for Democrats?

[irishbobcat]

this great op-ed piece by former VP Green candidate Pat LaMarche where she urges people to vote Green because of the Democrats' repeated broken promises in spite of controlling both houses of Congress and the Presidency.

Here's a snippet:

During the 2008 election cycle, the Democrats told us that we didn't get health care reform because the Republicans were in power. OK, the reason now that we don't have health care reform now must be because the Democrats are in power. We all know that if they had the will, with substantial majorities in both houses and a president of the same party, they could pass anything they wanted.

So it looks like the majority of the people and the majority of their doctors are going to be failed by their representatives.

Help me out here: Why do people vote for Democrats? And an even bigger question: Why do people who vote for the ideals espoused by the Democrats vote for them a second time after they've proved unwilling to deliver on those ideals?

You and I have heard the answer to that question a million times. Progressives vote for the Democrats because they are the "lesser of two evils." Which brings me to another question I'd like answered: How come in the largest and supposedly greatest democracy on Earth we have only two choices and they are both worthless? Heck, in Iraq if your candidate gets 1/276th of the popular vote, your party gets a seat in the parliament. And in case you haven't noticed, when we self-righteously changed their regime, this is the government we and the coalition gave them.

[...]

Whether it's fiscal responsibility or the safe return of our soldiers, so much of what the Green Party stands for was promised in the last election, by both parties. Call your elected representative today — including President Obama — and tell them to use their power to represent you; or next time you're voting Green.