Read my latest story, "A Tale of Two Birthdays", at 52|250.

I didn’t vote for Barack Obama, but I’m glad he won. I voted in Washington which was, I believe, called for Obama about 30 seconds after the polls closed (in fact, thanks to technical snafus, voters were still waiting in Puyallup); knowing it would go that way, I voted for Cynthia McKinney. I voted for her less on her individual merits and more because I wanted to contribute to the standing of the Green Party, not only because of the distant dream of a minor party promoted to major but also with the hope that more Democrats might see wooing the party’s left wing as a necessity.

The dream of a new major party may not be so distant. The Republicans are in disarray. Keep a close eye on Washington’s 8th Congressional District, which consists largely of suburban Seattle. If Darcy Burner ends up defeating the sheriff, it will be an indication that the Republicans have lost a lot of the relatively wealthy portion of their base. If the Republicans are truly as weakened as they appear, there will be space in the field for a new major party to emerge. We can have a party to the left of the Democrats gain power as more voters find they need not fear Republican victories.

In the mean time, the threat of this can be used to keep elected Democrats tacking left. When Obama said that the work had not ended with his election, it elevated him higher in my esteem than anything he could have done during the campaign would have. One key thing he did not say, however, was that the continuation of this struggle to change America does not depend on us following his leadership but, rather, on how we push our elected officials—our president-elect included—to do better.

Check out the conversation about what comes next on Alternet.

Or, for a more cynical take on the election, see the Onion.

Often the threat of greater limitations on reproductive freedom is held over the heads of women who might otherwise vote further left than the Democratic party. Recent comments from Barack Obama about mental distress and third-trimester abortions (despite some weak backpedaling) show, however, prominent Democrats often care very little about such rights in fact.

No people struggling from a position of relative weakness can afford to give all their power to one group, even when group memberships overlap and no matter the level of concern feigned or otherwise displayed. The more serious the issues, the more important this is.

If Democrats who are interested primarily in gaining and retaining power believe that they own the votes of people concerned about reproductive rights belong to them, they will be willing to chip away at these rights in order to earn other votes. This contributes, for example, to the success of “third way” thinking on abortion. It’s also part of the context for Obama’s change of focus in discussing his plans regarding Iraq.

It’s time that those of us who are not represented by major parties stopped giving our votes away so easily. There are other options out there.

Yesterday morning, my second class didn’t show up (which isn’t unusual for seniors here at Shengda, especially since, now that midterms are over, they’re allowed to leave the campus to start their job search), so I was able to return to my apartment nearly two hours early.  While it’s always pleasant to find oneself with extra time off, these good feelings soon evaporated when I made the mistake of turning on CNN for the tail end of the Democratic debate.  Things were thrown at the TV.  Fortunately, since I was still in the process of taking off my outer layers, most of these were soft things like my scarf, gloves, and hat.

Of course, I was watching the audience participation portion which included the repulsive “Diamonds or pearls?” question for Hillary Clinton.  Now, let’s leave aside for the moment the fact that this superficial question took up time that could have been used by candidates who have a real message but are continually marginalized in the mainstream media (even after winning a major national poll).  The fact is that Hillary Clinton’s answer exemplifies why I would never vote for her.  Saying that she wanted both not only supported a sort of gross materialism that frankly is at odds with what needs to change to solve the greatest challenges facing the world today (global warming, for instance) but also played into offensive stereotypes about women.  Repeatedly in her campaign, this woman has navigated the sometimes contradictory demands on women in power by acting out repulsive stereotypes while taking on some of the worst stereotypically masculine traits (hawkishness, for example).  This can only lead to bad policy, as Senator Clinton’s voting record (see her vote authorizing war in Iraq) shows.