Democrats! Bah, humbug. (was: The Last Laugh)

[Jeff Bone]

On Sunday, Apr 20, 2003, at 22:47 US/Central, James Rogers wrote:

> I have a strong free market libertarian bent, so the Democrats have 
> never
> appealed to me either.

I completely agree.  But if the choice is between two evils --- and 
clearly that's what it is and will be until we have substantial 
election reform in this country --- I'll pick the lesser of two evils.  
I've been a spoiler my entire voting career --- and this time around, 
that's proven to be a very bad thing.

> Mostly, I only care about issues, and ones that actually matter in 
> some big
> picture sense at that.  I am not so droll as to think that the ballot 
> box,
> public protesting, and other inanery count for much other than 
> appealing to
> a popular fiction, so I spend my effort in areas where I can actually
> influence outcomes.  Of course, that takes a lot more effort.

Again, mostly agreed.  I'm an issue voter, and I despise the "bundling" 
of concerns presented by the current two-party system.

> Yup, I highly doubt I will be voting for a Democratic President in the 
> next
> election, or even a Republican one for that matter.  But it isn't like 
> I
> stand to gain anything by voting either way.

Well, that's a problem.  If the last presidential election proves 
anything, it proves that every single vote counts.  Sure, some votes in 
some places are more strategic than others;  but with things divided as 
closely as they are, it's much harder now to predict which votes are 
going to be strategic.

> What we *really* need is to go back to the days when the individual 
> States
> were essentially the eminent legal authorities for their region 
> (rather than
> the Federal government).  The US is too diverse culturally, socially, 
> and
> economically to have some a group that represents some small cultural
> fraction of the US to have the power of creating broad mandates for the
> entire bloody country.  There are five or six major distinct 
> socio-cultural
> regions of the country with very different views of the world and 
> economic
> concerns, and a two-party system cannot adequately serve all those 
> regions
> without generating serious conflicts of interest within the parties.

COMPLETELY agreed!

> Voting affects change, but you have little control over what that 
> change
> actually is as a mere voter. That's certainly not how you go about 
> creating
> specific outcomes.

Well, disagree --- and the lessons of recent history underscore my 
position on that.

> Color me cynical,

Yeah, it's tough to get away from that.  But cynicism is a lot of 
what's wrong with the current system --- it's a self-fulfilling 
attitude.

jb