Editor's Note: The ongoing issue among U.S. voters who want real change is to vote Democrat or for one of the parties that are excluded from the process (e.g., think Green Party) - or not to vote at all. Here's a call - from Washington - to "Massachusetts Democrats" and "Progressives" - to vote for the person who will replace Ted Kennedy, the "Lion of the Senate". At one time I worshipped Ted Kennedy, just like I worshipped his two assassinated brothers - but later, not so. There is still a diminishing hope a lot of people in the U.S. still have in the Democrats - even after Obama gambit. If we did not learn from the Obama ruse, what will it take to teach us? "Hope springs eternal" they say, but sometimes that hope ... faith? is misplaced. In my personal view, growing stronger with each passing year, is that any confidence, whatsoever, in any Democrat politician is misplaced, even when voting for a good guy like Dennis Kucinich. Why? Simply put, the voter is being used to support a corrupt two-party system designed to deceive ... and ignore the voter, by default. But when people still believe in US elections, even when it seems most reasonable, their vote is invested in a vile system - which ironically supports that system. It's difficult when this is the only hope that remains within their paradigm. But for them - those who are unable to conceive of a revolution in the US (and of all people, I know it's difficult), I do understand that their view that voting is the most reasonable thing to do, given the choices offered up by the oligarchy.

- Les Blough, Editor

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Win One For The Ted. To Massachusetts voters: Vote

By Brent Budowsky

To Massachusetts voters who may be liberal Democrats, moderate or liberal independents, and first time voters from 2006 or 2008 message for this Martin Luther King weekend is: vote, vote, vote.

No-one among Washington insiders has argued more aggressively and consistently than I have that the President and Democratic Congress have failed to fight hard enough for the change we believe in, the values we stand for, and the mandate we thought we had won in 2006 and 2008. And no-one has warned others in Washington, who have ears that don't see and ears that don't hear, that this failure to fight will lead to substantial voter depression from too many of our previous supporters in 2010.

But make no mistake, the stakes in the election of Massachusetts are enormous, incalculable and potentially permanent if Democrats will no longer control 60 seats, no matter how weakly, for the duration of the Obama presidency.

The road to what we believe is to vote, to get others to vote, to bring out every voter who cares about real change, about making a real fight, about taking the real actions to make this country better.

I will not be writing many more essays such as this if the President doesn't stand up harder and fight, if Democrats in Congress do not remember who put them there, and why.

But today, tomorrow and Tuesday the case is clear, the stakes are enormous, the reasons to vote are inculcable, and the consquences of losing are indescribable because weak as it, and it is weak, if Massachusetts votes to elect a Tea Party Republican to the Senate, the 60 votes will be gone for the remainder of the Obama Presidency. That would be tradegy for all of the things we believe in.

For Democrats in Massachusetts: vote.

For progressives in Massachusetts: vote.

For independents in Massachusetts: vote, and understand very clearly that those of us appalled by the rip-offs and joblessness and injustices in the modern economy will be even more appalled if Massachusetts elects a Tea Party Republican to the Senate masquerading as a phony reformer who will not be 10% the reformer Martha Coakley would be.

To first time voters from 2006 and 2008, I hear you, I am with you. We have not gotten nearly the change we were promised but we will get far more change, and far more justice, and far more jobs, with the seat held by Jack and Ted Kennedy remaining Democratic and not being taken by a right wing imposter.

So: vote, vote, vote. Understand how high the stakes really are and vote, because if we have learned one thing from the election of George W. Bush, it is the importance of every vote being voted, and every voter being counted.

Brent Budowsky
Suite 217, 1101 New Hampshire Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037
Phone: (202) 296-6177
Fax: (202) 331-7922