2004 Presidential Candidates

I know I'm not the only person who feels that the 2004 Presidential debates have been a complete waste of time, money and effort. This year's election, even more than most, is one in which the public feels like they must choose the lesser of two evils. On one hand, we have our incumbent who ignores his supposedly conservative heritage, spends like a maniac, stomps on our rights with the Patriot Act and who can't string more than three words together if not guided by a teleprompter. On the other hand we have a waffling liar who has spent the last two decades of his political career trying to raise taxes, slash the military and increase federal control over education and healthcare. Kerry has voted for giving illegal aliens "in state" college tuition, and has voted against limiting punitive damages in product liability law suits. Bush and Kerry both support amnesty for many illegal aliens, and are in favor of maintaining our high rate of legal immigration. Both Bush and Kerry are in favor of keeping the Patriot Act, though Bush wants to expand it and Kerry wants to reduce it slightly.

Come to think of it, I don't know a single person in my private life who is actually voting FOR one of these bumbling candidates. They are voting AGAINST one of them, but there is no passion in favor of either of them. Half of the people I know are voting for Bush in spite of his departure from conservatism, because at least he "isn't as bad as Kerry". The other half is voting for Kerry only because he is the guy with a slight chance of getting rid of Bush. Even the candidates have little to say that is positive about themselves. 75% of the debate time was spent saying how bad the other guy will be for our country.

Enough is enough!

We need not and should not vote for either of these bozos. There are quite a few seemingly intelligent and decent candidates out there backed by smaller parties. Pick one that reflects your views and vote for them. The selection of the next leader of the most powerful nation on Earth should not look like a sequel to the Dumb and Dumber movie.

Some people claim that voting for a third party candidate is "throwing away your vote", but frankly, the only way to throw your vote away is to cowardly support someone that you neither respect nor agree with simply because you are afraid of the alternative.

If given a choice between a punch in the face, a kick in the groin or a lottery ticket with a miniscule chance of winning, which would you choose?
Think of the third party candidate as the lottery ticket: Odds are against it winning but at least you didn't help someone give you a punch in the face or a kick in the groin.

If by some miracle a third party candidate does win, the two-party system will be devastated, and that's exactly what this country needs. Even if ten different third party candidates each get 2% of the vote, the Republicans and Democrats will panic. Both parties would then have to actually stand for something and keep their promises rather than this current mockery where they each find different ways to steal our money to support programs and policies we don't like and inflict laws on us that we never asked for.

Look at the 2000 presidential election. The voting was so close that it took days of recounting in order to figure out who won. If one or more third party candidates had gotten another 1% of the vote, it would have literally changed the outcome of the election. Imagine how much harder the Republicans would have worked to get your vote this year if 100,000 more disgruntled conservatives had voted for the Libertarian, Constitution or Reform Party candidates and denied Bush the victory! Imagine if the Democrats had learned that Al Gore would have won if it wasn't for a few thousand disillusioned Democrats in Florida voting for the Green Party, the Communist Party or some other group that has much in common with the Democrat Party.

For those of us in states that traditionally support one party or the other, your vote won't change the outcome of the election anyway, so a third part vote will be no worse than any other vote. California, for instance, always supports the Democratic candidate. As a result, California is ignored by both parties because the Democrats take us for granted and the Republicans write us off as a lost cause. If those Californians intelligent enough to be unhappy with the front runners all vote for third party candidates, chances are Kerry will still get the CA electoral votes. Nevertheless, the Republicans and Democrats would both be weakened by this reduced support and will have a harder time raising funds in that state for the next campaign. The third parties, however, would reap tremendous benefits as voting for them gives them a better chance of attending debates, getting publicity, raising campaign funds and calling attention to their hot issues.

Send a message to the entrenched power brokers and vote third party!

For my part, I will be supporting Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian party.

For more information on wielding political power, influencing politicians and supporting third party candidates, visit the "Wielding Power" section of www.LestDarknessFall.com