Looking at the sample ballot online, after most state wide positions, the third party candidates mirrored the two parties. It dawned on me, this is like going to McDonalds and finding out you have two choices, a cheeseburger with mustard or a cheeseburger without mustard and being deathly allergic to cheese. (No hamburger just cheeseburger)
I love politics, yet the two major parties actually discourage me, so could this explain why those who don’t even like politics don’t vote? Sixty percent is considered a great turn out. So if 60% percent of registered voters vote and 51 percent vote for the winner, the winner received only (.60x.51=) 30.6 percent of registered voter’s votes. I wonder what percentage of 18 and older citizens are registered. Lets be generous and say 80%, the total percentage of the population the winner would have recieved in votes would have been 24.48%. So now we have less then 25% of the population deciding what’s best for the other 75% (plus minors). I wonder how many of that 24.48% REALLY wanted the winner instead of NOT wanting the other guy. Hmmm, minors lets see, if the average household has 2.1 kids, no lets make it 1.2, that would mean for every two adults there would be about one minor. So since the population is 300 million that would mean 100 million kids give or take, so 30% of the population isn’t even counted in the total. So,.70x.80x.60x.51 = .17136 or 17.14%, less then 18% of the total population is represented. So how can any politician say with a straight face, they have a mandate from the “people” when they only got 18% of the population to vote for them?
The similarities between the two parties bring into question if they really are two parties or just one with slight differences. They both feel government is the solution, that without “Them” we would be helpless. Both throw money at a problem and expect it to fix it. Have you heard either say the problems are the governments making? Look at recent failures, FEMA fails and is rewarded with a higher spot in the pecking order and increased funds. School Districts constantly under perform, and cry that they’re not getting enough funding, so their given more. Not year after year, but decade after decade, yet have you seen any REAL improvement? Could we rename them the left wing and right wing of the socialist party?
Then look at the largest third parties in the state, Independence, Working families, and Conservative. Are they really third parties when all they do is mostly indorse the major party candidates? Would you like your cheeseburger with or without mustard?
We could look at the ballot itself as part of the problem. When the winner gets the top spot and the pecking order is from the top down, new parties have little chance. I knew who I was voting for before I got there, yet I had to look for where they were. A guy with a bad back wouldn’t have been able to bend over that far to pull the levers. Ironic, that by not being able to bend over to vote you get bent over. With the Chinese fire drills that were seen in the past elections like butterfly ballots and hanging chads, one could doubt the intelligence and common sense of voters, with that in mind, why make it harder then it already is to find a “worthy” candidate on the ballot. Isn’t gerrymandering districts enough?
Maybe Jefferson wasn't as bright as I thought and as short sighted as the "Living Document" crowd say. After all he believed democracy was 51% enslaving the other 49%. Is 18% lording over 82% any less, or more for that matter, immoral and evil?
