On a purely theoretical level, I can actually see a decent argument being made that Stalinism was better (or, rather, less bad) than Trotskyism. I think Orwell says somewhere that it's mostly just the fact that Trotskyites happened not to wield power anywhere during most of the relevant time periods that makes them look like they had the moral high ground. However, it remains the case that as a matter of historical happenstance they do look like they had the moral high ground for that reason. I didn't vote.
I voted for Stalin just out of spite, and for this exact reason. Berkeley communists adore Trotsky; they plaster his face all over their leaflets and pamphlets. Lucky for them that a historical accident prevented him from being associated with mass murder-- otherwise they'd have to find another poster boy for their hateful ideology.
Yeah. Since Stalin became a symbol of authoritarian socialism and Trotsky was Stalin's enemy, Trotsky became a symbol of libertarian socialism. But this is a myth. Trotsky and Stalin disagreed with each other in many issues, but authoritarism was not one of them. During the Civil War, Trotsky was more stalinist than Stalin.
Poll
