I've never liked the two party system. From when I was in 4th Grade and proudly cast my fake ballot for Ross Perot in the KidsVote thing up until today it seems ridiculous that in a country where choice reigns supreme, we're expected to choose between two parties and only two parties. My high school econ teacher compared it to choosing between herpes and gonhorrea every four years and he was more or less correct. (Personally, I'd pass on either choice and settle for a mild case of crotch itch.)
As I got older and started studying political science, I realized that a lot of it has to do with the voting system we've got. Winner take all, single member districts (translated: one Representative per district, whoever gets the most votes wins) tend to produce lower number of parties (i.e. 2.) In the Western Democracies, it hasn't always worked out that way. Canada has four parties (2 big ones, 2 smaller-medium sized ones) and the UK manages 2.5 (the next election will be interesting for the Liberal Democrats over there) so more choices are possible. We just don't seem to produce them.
Despite what Republicans tell you, being the 'Greatest Nation On Earth' isn't some zen-like thing. It's not a state of Nirvana. You don't just get there and put your feet up and have a beer. It's hard work so I look for candidates and parties that take an interest in the health of our democracy. (Which given the anti-democratic nature of the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Citizens United decision and many other aspects of our current mess of a system, isn't good.)
It's with that in mind that I'm officially endorsing (and voting for) Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party for President.
Of all the candidates that I've researched (and I do visit every website I can dig up, I've got two degrees in PoliSci after all) surprisingly it was Stein and the Green Party that had the most comprehensive and complete platform for political reform out there. While I tend to be more centrist than much of the Green Party platform, their brand of leftism focuses on direct democracy and empowering people over corporations as a posed to the insidious statism that mainstream Progressives espouse today.
I want to ensure the health and stability of our democracy for my children and their children. We can and we must do better for this great nation of ours and neither of the two parties seems interested in reforming a sclerotic and corrupt system. Free and Equal hosted a Third Party debate and it was revealing in that all four candidates talked about issues that neither President Obama nor Mittens had spoken about. (And Dr. Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson will be debating again on the 5th. Watch this before you vote. And then think about just how much of a waste a vote for four more years of business as usual is going to be.)
It was with a great deal of pride and hope for this country that I voted for President Obama in 2008. I believed he would bring real change to 'business as usual' politics in Washington and he was a politician that spoke to my generation. What I got was four years of business as usual. While I acknowledge that getting Bin Laden, overthrowing Qadaffi and ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell are all good things, (As is the income-based repayment program for Federal Student Loans. Kudos for that.) Our economic recovery is anemic, Gitmo is still open, Drone attacks and assassinations have become the new face of neo-conservative foreign policy carried out by this administration and I wanted a President to have the courage the stand up on the right side of marriage equality on Day 1, not year 4.
"But he needs four more years to finish the job," is a common refrain I've heard. He doesn't have four years though. He has, if he's lucky, a year and a half before midterm elections tie up Congress and after that, everybody's looking ahead to 2016. The opportunity for major change is behind him.
And Mittens is no better. I believe he's a good man but his recent embrace of 'real change in Washington' is laughable. If President Obama has come up short, I expect a President Mittens will do the same. The two party system has paralyzed our political discourse and the current Republican Party is completely beyond the pale on social issues especially. You cannot demand the government get out of people's lives and then want to codify bigotry into Constitutions across the country. You can't demand Free Market Capitalism and fight tooth and nail for corporate welfare and defense contracts. The hypocrisy of the modern Republican Party is nauseating and if a hypothetical President Mittens can buck that trend then more power to him. But I doubt he can.
Most people like to back winners in this country and most people will think this is an irresponsible waste of a vote. I couldn't disagree more. I know what I believe and I look for candidates that believe what I believe and the only wasted vote is one you don't cast. Nothing is ever going to change in this country unless we start voting for candidates that talk about the issues no one else will talk about and thinking every day about how we can make this country better. That's what I believe and that's what I'm voting for this year.
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