From: BobRoehr@aol.com
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 13:16:56 -0400
Subject: Re: The Endorsement that Isn't

The Third Party Option		
	by Bob Roehr		10/25/96		(600 words)


The 1992 presidential election was positively euphoric for many in the
lesbian and gay community. Bill Clinton said we were part of his vision of
America and we believed him.

What a difference four years makes. This time around you have to have had a
lobotomy or a patronage job in the administration to feel anything remotely
near that sense of exuberance. 

Even the dread factor is down. Can Bob Dole and the Republicans screw us any
worse than Clinton did on gay marriage, gays in the military, or failed
"leadership" in fighting the spread of AIDS and finding a promised "cure" for
the epidemic?  

Maybe. But it seems to many that the possible degree of difference carries
all the significance of those medieval debates about the number of angels
that can dance on the head of a pin.

Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), has
called this election "the evil of two lessers." John Perry Barlow, a founding
father of cyberspace, likens it to "a choice between cancers." 

The polls show Clinton with a wide lead over Dole. It is apparent he does not
need gay and lesbian votes to win reelection. So what should the rational
lesbian or gay do on November 5?

Some are going to stay home. That is not an option for me. There are other
races on the ballot where a candidate has earned my vote or my opposition.
"All politics is local," said former Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. And
the more local the race, the greater impact your vote has. Remember that
local politics is the feedstock from which future change will come.

Leaving the presidential space blank has some appeal. But more people
traditionally vote for president and there is usually a drop off in the
number of people voting for the next highest office. So the "blank" protest
vote often goes unnoticed. 

Third parties are an option. Their historical significance is not in winning
elections but in introducing ideas and shifting the political process. When
enough people show their disenchantment through their votes, the major
parties take notice, they jockey to co-opt or absorb fringe issues and bring
them into the mainstream. That is how much major political change takes place
in the United States.

There is no perfect third party vehicle for the gay and lesbian vote this
year. We haven't done the ground work, thought and organized enough for there
to be an obvious consensus. But it really doesn't matter. Virtually any third
party vote is likely to work.

If there is a significant jump in presidential third party vote totals in the
gay precincts of Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other
cities, it will reduce Clinton's margin of victory but it won't change the
count in the electoral college.

It will catch the attention of political junkies who read voting data more
closely than Gypsies read tea leaves. They will note Clinton's reduced totals
from four years ago while state and local candidates suffer no such drop off.
They will understand the discontent and they will remember it when advising
other candidates in elections to come.

Bill Clinton's reelection seem assured, whether you think that good or ill.
It is time for the gay and lesbian community to think more strategically,
more long term in casting it's individual presidential vote. But, regardless
how you decide on November 5, it is TIME TO VOTE.