Linux fan to run against Arnie in California election (Silicon.com)

I'd advise against publishing this kind of story in LWN in the future, as it's irrelevant to Linux and likely to just generate a lot of political argument.

I disagree.

Politics is FAR more important than technology to Open Source in general and Linux in particular at the moment. If LWN is serious about promoting Linux (and the survival of free software), social and political issues are the first things they need to focus on.

We suffer, we suffer greatly, because none of us, not even Lawrence Lessig, realizes that we need set our differences about other issues aside and truly unite on the issues of free culture. Everybody is going to vote for their traditional party (Demo or Repub or Green or whatever) based on the economy, the war, the environment, what your union says, what your business says, or etc. We all seem to think that intellectual property issues are "not important enough" in comparison to those other things. The result: every politician knows that they will lose no elections based on their free culture position, and therefore they would be insane not to whore themselves out to big-donating corporations who want terrible things like DRM and software patents and supoena power for media companies and other things that will make life difficult for free software writers.

We need to pull our heads out of the sand and realize that *politics matters*. If we refuse to talk about it because it's contentions and because we all *do* have very different opinions about defense, abortion, etc., then the issues we all agree on will wilt and die.

I wish all geeks would unify, truly unify, behind Georgy Russell. Agree to vote for her, agree to campaign for her, and get the word out to others. Even if you disagree with some of her other politics-- the fact that she has at least a clue about software and those issues means that she's a better choice than anybody else, specifically for these issues. Hold your nose on the other issues if you don't like them, but until we're willing to really come together behind somebody who's on the right side of "our" issues, those issues won't really be taken seriously.

There's also the fact that the country is, effectively, held at the mercy of the Republican and Democratic machines. That the most well-known state governor who was not from those parties turned out to be a disaster makes things worse. We will continue to be at the mercy of those party machines and those who fund them so long as we maintain the mentality that a vote for anybody other than the front runner is a vote wasted. The Internet and our common shared interest in free culture gives us the opportunity to unite behind somebody who is *different*. If that somebody turns out to be smart and competent, it might just be the first drop in turning the tide.

I don't agree with all of Georgy's positions. But if I still lived in California, I'd vote for her, becuase I'm sick and tired of people making decisions that have tremendous implications for freedom in the digital age without the first clue what they're doing, and thus listening to the arguments of their campaign donors.

-Rob