The Slippery Slope

I'm continually astounded at buzz around the current election.  I listen to people tell me why McCain is great and why Obama is great.  Once you cut through the bullshit it usually boils down to why McCain or Obama sucks.  Honestly, do you vote for candidates, or against them?  Honestly?

Since Nixon in the 70s we've had an increasingly cynical view of Washington.  This is exacerbated by constant sex or financial scandals, continually lying, broken campaign promises, Right/Left slanted media, movies, failing economies, and wars that don't make sense.  I think we can agree that nearly the whole of Washington is corrupt.  Why, then, is it that we keep electing the same people?  Isn't the definition of insanity when you keep doing the same thing and expect different results?  That's what we do, election after election.  We keep electing the same people and expecting them to behave differently.  We keep thinking "This time they'll keep their campaign promises."  We keep thinking "This candidate really is different because he says so."  That Is Insane.  Are we really that stupid?

Why are we as a country so afraid to consider a third party candidate?  Why have we not done away with the absurdly inaccurate and outdated electoral college system?  Are we really such a commercially jaded and malleable society that we can only consider the big party candidates with billions to spend on their campaigns?  Are we really so pathetic that we'll vote for McCain just because he's got a young woman for a running mate?  Are we really so obtuse that we'll vote for Obama only because we're angry at Bush and the Republicans?  Are we really all stupid enough to eat the biased crap the media vomits at us daily (both right and left, don't kid yourself)?  Are we really all so effectively programmed that we think there are only two choices? 

Remember Ron Paul? 

 http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/paul.endorsement/

"I've come to the conclusion, after having spent many years in politics, is that our presidential elections turn out to be more of a charade than anything else, and I think that is true today. It is a charade," he said.

Paul said a strong showing by the third-party candidates would express the public's frustration with the current system.

"If you ever get to the point where you believe the two parties are essentially the same, if the majority is outside of the establishment, it's not very democratic. The process is not working," Paul said.

Don't be a robot this November.  Stop obeying the programming they give you.  Don't vote Republican/Democrat because your family does, or you always have.  And for the love of sanity DON'T VOTE ALONG PARTY LINES!  THINK FOR YOURSELF!  Look up the Libertarian party, or the Green Party, or the Constitution Party, or independents like Ralph Nader.  Or for the love of whatever you hold dear, if you don't like any of them, FIND SOMEONE YOU DO AND WRITE THEM IN!  Don't just vote for "the other guy."  It's not a binary problem.

THAT is what the Henry Rollins for President thing is all about.  He won't win, I know that.  I'm not stupid.  But I can't in good conscience vote for the candidates from the two giant Good 'Ole Boys clubs that have been running our government for over a hundred years.  It's time for change.  Real change.

Elections are supposed to be the time when We The People can have a say in how we are governed.  That's been taken away from us by two bloated political parties and the media, and we need to take it back.