Friday, November 03, 2006

Pre Election Venting

It is only four days away from Election Day, and I have to vent. I don't care which faction of the Demopublican Party takes the majority in Congress. They are all basically the same. No matter who takes the HOR and/or the Senate, we'll still have a Congress that is trying to extend its power outside its constitutional limits. We are still going to get a lot of talk and accusations, and very little action.
If you haven't noticed, there is very little substance to any of the political campaigns--it's all "Vote for me because I'm not the other guy."
If you do not believe that the Demopublcan system is a one party system, just look at how difficult it is in most states to get on the ballot as an independent or third party candidate. Impossibly large numbers of valid signatures under impossibly short deadlines ensure that the so-called "major parties" maintain their control of state governments and electorates without serious opposition.
Still, there are plenty of issues that will still compel me to go to the voting booth next Tuesday. I have already posted items in support of the legalization of marijuana, and equal rights for domestic partners, but there are other issues which interest me as well. On the Colorado ballot, for instance, is one that will make the citizens' initiative petition process easier and fairer. It will, if passed, put legislation back in the hands of the people, and take away the power of the single party system. If passed, Amendment 38 to the Colorado Constitution will add some cost to the taxpayer, but that cost will be offset by the ability of the citizen to get more costly earmarked and frivolous legislation repealed. It is an issue very important to me.
And there are the Libertarian candidates. Even though I don't see eye to eye with some of them on national security issues, I will vote for any candidate who is on the ballot as a Libertarian. The Libertarian Party has two basic planks on its platform--the Constitution of the United States, including the original ten articles of the Bill of Rights, and the idea of freedom described in the Declaration of Independence.
My point is, that even if there is nobody running for office that you might like, it is still important to get out and vote. You don't have to vote for any candidate, if you don't want to, just go and vote for the issues that are important to you.
There are only two more days in which I may post items pertaining to the elections. I don't have web access on Sundays, so Saturday and Monday are the only days on which I have an opportunity to be an activist for or against some issues. So, I probably won’t get all the information out I want to, for I'm still tied to a public computer, but, please, for your sake, get involved in what you feel is important. Vote.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've been saying for ages that we need to legalize weed. Roll it up, put it in packs of 20 just like smokes and tax the crap outta them. Then, take the money and use it for education, or roads or anything except "anti-pot" campaigns. Why the last? Because if someone is going to smoke it, no ad is going to stop them, therefor, it's a waste of money.