According a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last month, 46% of Americans said they would consider voting for an independent third-party candidate they agreed with on the issues. [source]In order to achieve any sort of reasonable 3rd-party candidates, the candidates themselves are going to have to take themselves seriously. In the previous congressional election, I voted for the All Day Breakfast Party, joining a minority who threw their vote away. Upon visiting the candidates page, you are greeted with a picture of a younger man holding a donut. Forgive me for believing that he never took his 3,259 votes seriously, but then again, I never took him seriously either, thus begetting the problem.
A famous satirist once wrote,
"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see...."I've chosen Douglas Adams diatribe because I feel it expresses my feelings about both the current GOP debacle that is taking place daily and the necessity of the rise of a 3rd party candidate, much like in 1992 with Ross Perot. I voted for Ross Perot. I was 5 years old. Three of my classmates joined me in my display of radicalness, not voting red or blue, but instead voting green (not to be confused with Ralph Nader, it just so happened the teacher chose green squares). I remember finding out on the following day that my candidate, someone I had chosen only because he lay outside the norm, had lost. Of course I was dismayed, I was 5, already a rebel and in time-out more often than not, but I held strong and never gave up my beliefs.
"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"
"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."
"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."
"I did," said Ford. "It is."
"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"
"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."
"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"
"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."
"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"
"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."
- Douglas Adams, in So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish (1984) Ch. 36
Douglas Adams exchange between Ford and Arthur reminds me of the current ideological battle between pro-big business and pro-theology (with a little pro-regression) squabbles that go on daily in the GOP. How dare I give up my morals and belief on women's rights that I would reconsider my opinion, rather than repeal women's suffrage. Those who would strike down 90 years of progress to get one man out of the White House, they really need another alternative. Names float around like Christie or Paul, but everyone seems to pass judgement too soon these days in the instant gratification era of 24 hour news.
