I offer into consideration several reasons for voting for a third party candidate. Some of these reasons might well have been seen before. Some, perhaps not.
People who support the mainstream parties, like Democrats and Republicans, denigrate third parties and their candidates.
They say they can't win. You've got to be kidding. You are wasting your vote. You will cause my candidate to lose or their candidate to win. And on and on ad infinitum.
But is this the case today?
We have a need, greater than ever, to wrest control of the government and country from the two major parties. We all know, and most of us admit, to the litany of egregious legislation, behaviors, appointments, signing statements we face today. We know the bailout, foisted upon us by both parties a couple of weeks ago will be an albatross around the average citizens' neck unto the second and third generation, while the miscreants who created this mess get to party on, with our money. They have destroyed our military, our economy, our financial system, our safe food system, safe toys, electoral process...and stuck us with the bill.
So how do those who claim my vote for a third party member is wasted, thrown away, on an independent or third party candidate, when their parties are so deeply buried in the pockets of their corporate masters that they can't find their way out? Why, in all good conscience, should I vote to perpetuate the downward spiral these parties have tied us into? Why should I vote to support someone who is going to fleece me and mine over and over? Why should I vote to continue enabling either of these parties. Yes, It is enabling, as in the sense that one enables a substance abuser to continue in that existence if you don't stand up to them and say enough. The parties are ineffective. They are trying to serve two masters, the voter and the corporation. Who do you think is getting better service?
The Democrats are not an opposition party. They are at the least an accessory party to all the misbehavior, mismanagement, corruption,, cronyism and criminal activity of the Republican Party. The Democrats have done nothing for the middle or lower classes except to allow the middle to shrink and the lower to expand.
The Green Party, in contrast, is an opposition party. When McCain or Obama say nuclear power and clean coal are our way out of the energy crisis, the Greens are in opposition. There is no safe nuclear power and there is no such thing as clean coal. When they talk about supporting the bailout, opposed about 99 to 1 nationally but passed over our objections anyway, the Green Party and its candidate Cynthia McKinney stood up and said, what about the average citizen, what do they get for their money? How do they keep their homes? Why should the little guy pay the bill for the mess created by the wealthy and large corporate interests?
When the Bush administration pushes to remove all consumer protections; clean air and water protections, endangered species regulations, did either the Democratic or Republican candidates stand up in opposition? No. But the Green party is standing up, fighting to protect your children and grandchildren from harmful concoctions in the toys your kids and grandkids play with.
The Green Party stands up for wholesome healthy food, with responsible regulation from the FDA.
The Green Party is there fighting for the Internet against major corporate interests over bandwidth and access and control.
And the Green Party is there at unjust executions, institutionalized state sponsored murder, where innocent citizens face imminent execution for crimes they did not commit.
You want to discuss health care? The Democrat and Republicans are for variations of 'affordable' health care, health care that will still leave untold millions out of the medical care loop. The Green Party is supporting charge-free universal single payer health care.
This could go on for a very long time. I have not touched on the interests of blue collar workers, service employees, who have lost more and more rights to unionize, to protest, to whistleblow , as the corporations have won or taken or been given ever increasing power over labor, by Congress and the administrations over the last 28 years. National labor boards have become corporate rights boards. What do we have to show for it? Who made it possible.? A long chain of Democrats and Republicans.
Enabling. That is what it is.
The Democrats have made a point of talking about the future of the Supreme Court, but it was the Democratic Party that chose to keep their powder dry in the nomination fights for Roberts and Alito. The Green Party stands for judges that are impartial, apply the rule of law, work for all the people and equitable justice, and not simply 'justice' for the elect elite, our wealthy. The Green Party supports the concept that we all have a right to access, without limitation or bar, our day in court without being priced out of the market with filing fees and other gimmicks created to keep us from filing our 'frivolous' lawsuits against corporations.
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