Enough About You, Let's Talk About Me

Over at TPM, they've been talking about those of us who are threatening to not vote Democrat in November if our Horse loses the Primary.

"I was one of the pure in heart who in 1968 could not bring myself to vote for Humphrey and voted for Cleaver instead. Politically it was the dumbest thing I've ever done. However, I did learn something: elections are about deciding who will be the next president, senator, governor or whatever, but they should not be psycho-dramas conducted to allow people to demonstrate their high-mindedness.
Those supporters of HRC who cannot bring themselves to vote for Obama or vice versa will a few weeks into the McCain administration wake up and realize that they've been jackasses. Or, at least I hope they will realize it."

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So I see most of these promises as the emotional equivalent of things friends or lovers can say in the midst of heated fights -- the vast number of which they recant later and wish they'd never said.

Clearly though there are some people who really do mean it. A very small fraction I think, but there nonetheless. And there's really no better example of emotional infantilism that some people bring to the political process . One can see it in a case like 1968 perhaps or other years where real and important differences separated the candidates -- or in cases where the differences between the parties on key issues were not so great. But that simply is not the case this year. As much as the two campaign have sought to highlight the differences, the two candidates' positions on almost every issue is extremely close. And the differences that do exist pale into insignificance when compared to Sen. McCain's.

That's not to say that these small differences are reasons to choose one of the candidates over the other. But to threaten either to sit the election or vote for McCain or vote for Nader if your candidate doesn't win the nomination shows as clearly as anything that one's ego-investment in one's candidate far outstrips one's interest in public policy and governance. If this really is one's position after calm second-thought, I see no other way to describe it.

Of course, I live in Illinois. Dennis Kucinich could carry this state. I think my vote is less influential tan say, in Ohio.

And at leastMcCain isn't related to one of the last 28 years of presidential administrations....