Politics 2000 - Addendum #1

The fact is that the guy the majority of people vote for will be President. Making unilatteral statments about all of them being evil and then doing litterally nothing about it is rather silly. However you are doing exactly what the large parties want you to do. They would love nothing better than to have as few people vote as possible. It makes things much easier for them. For a mater of fact that is why so many candidates talk about issues that you don't think are important. They count on the party faithful to come out and vote, not you. If more people voted then they would have to pay more attention to what those people want. By not voting you, and millions like you, are not helping the cause of broader political debate. It is as if you think that by not participating the governement will stop one day and say "By golly those people are mad. We should do somethin about that!" Except that they won't listen to you because you people aren't saying anything. By not voting you are telling them that you are pleased as punch with the way things are going. No changes neccessary. The only people they listen to are people who write letters to them and vote and are politically active enough to get in their faces at rallies and party meetings. Oh sure money helps a lot in this nation, the more money the better the message gets through. But in the end, after all the doe is counted, it is the vote that they really need. If you are running for President and you end your race with a million in the bank and only 20% of the vote while your rival is broke but has 60% of the vote then you are not going to be President, the broke guy is. You won't be implementing tax policy, the broke guy will. So a vote counts.

The only way to get these guys to talk about issues you are interested in is to vote and get politically involved. It is a self fullfilling prophecy not to vote. By not voting you are gaurenteed to be presented with leaders you don't like. It makes you mad so you don't vote, and so on. As for them all being evil that is a sophomoric attitude to take. All the people running are just that, people. They have all the emotions you have, all the lusts, flaws, and desires for acceptance and love. The one thing they all have that most of us don't have is a giggantic ego. But that is no sin. I would put it to you that there has NEVER been a president without at a heurculean ego. In order to seek national offfice you need an ego that is big enough to allow you to think that you can do the job, and thick enough to take all the pounding by your political rivals. As far as the Presidency is concerned, no soft spoken shy dudes need apply. I am voting for John McCain. I do not agree with all his stands but on the whole I think he is the most honorable man for the job; Cetainly more honorable than Bill Clinton or GW Bush, the billion fat cat Forbes, or the moralistic looneis to the right.