Senate Debate

Senate Debate
Current mood: irritated

Well, I watched the Senate debate last night between Maria Cantwell, Mike McGavick, and Bruce Guthrie. My immediate reaction, besides the obvious fact that our electoral system is extremely favorable to the independently wealthy (all 3 are multi-millionaires and using much of their own money to finance their campaigns), was that I am absolutely sick of political-correctness. Everyone had to keep their "polite gloves" on and this was basically more of a soundbite trade-off than a real debate. I truly feel that the PC movement has crippled our language.

Cantwell: Poised, calm, courteous to the moderator and crowd, offering decent suggestions but refusing to make any real claims or intrepid plans. She was more content to just sit back and go after the administration, which looks like it will be enough to win. I was impressed, however, at how much more she felt like a real stateswoman. The other two really came off as your really political uncle who gets into debates at Christmas dinner.

McGavick: Truly a terrible candidate and a snapshot of the Repubs' strategy to win this November. I can't even count on my two hands how many times he used the words "radical Islamic terrorism" as the debate progressed. It's obvious his party is playing defense here and that their only real strategy is to scare the bejesus out of voters. I was absolutely dismayed at the glibness displayed when discussing drilling in ANWAR---although Cantwell made a very strong argument that it wouldn't have much of an effect on gas prices and the real solution is alternative energy, he completely dismissed all of that with a wave of his hand and promised he'd push for drilling from day one. This extremely short-term view of the world is one of the biggest problems with this party.

Guthrie: The Libertarian candidate was obviously out of his league, as he stuttered repeatedly and didn't make very good arguments other than the one point I was 100% behind him on: a choice between 2 parties doesn't represent America's diversity and the bipartisan system is strangling our democracy one election at a time.

I will not be voting for any of these three candidates. With the exception of Kerry in 04, I have never voted for a Democrat or a Republican. I refuse to play the "lesser of two evils" game as I wholly believe this is how the 2 parties keep radical new ideas from entering the body politic. I could write a whole blog on this topic alone (and perhaps I will), but suffice it to say that nothing will really ever change until we are presented with more real choices. No wonder 60% of eligible people don't even vote. If you think about it that way, you realize that our government only represents 40% of the country.

This time around, I am going with Aaron Dixon, the Green Party candidate, who coincidentally was arrested yesterday during a protest against his ban from last night's debate. He wasn't allowed into the debate due to his inability to meet the debate criteria (read: CASH ON HAND), and he and a large group of other disenfranchised-types tried to crash the debate. This is the kind of democracy I love and will gladly give my vote to support. Hands-on, grass-roots, storming the castle kinda stuff.

Hopefully everyone is registered to vote. And hopefully everyone will consider looking at other options than the two big parties. Make your own choices, but realize that any vote for a democrat or a republican is a vote for the status quo.

Currently listening :
Limit
By Pastaboys
Release date: 05 October, 2006