The Lesser of Two Evils

Every four years people professing to be pundits pontificate on what we the voting public will do in the fall election. This year has been no different in that department, however the cast of characters has changed some. The historic campaigns of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have been well documented. Sen. Obama even earned his party's nomination becoming the first person of African descent to do so. With that he faces Sen. John McCain in the general election. Much of Obama's success can be attributed to his message of change. With the notion of change comes the idea that Sen. Obama will be able to respond to the issues facing the country with an approach that everyday people would come up with. This idea has many thinking of "outside the beltway" solutions to "inside the beltway" problems. However, a radical thought that few have given serious consideration to is perhaps a more impactful change would come from a candidate outside of the two major parties. This is thought to be blasphemy on the surface, but a careful examination of the issues suggest that maybe a third party candidate speaks more directly issues that matter to you the voter.

If you are a free market enthusiast and would like to see capitalism grow and thrive you may think your only horse in this race is John McCain. However, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr is for no government intervention in the free marketplace. According to Barr's website the role of government in capitalism is to "protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected". This seems to be on par with McCain but where they differ is Barr advocates for a suspension of business subsidies and the scaling down of the military as ways to cut federal spending. Sen. McCain is not interested in removing business subsidies and it goes without saying that he has no interest in scaling down the military; thus it'll be less than likely that Sen. McCain will take the real steps to cut federal spending as his rhetoric suggest.

Sen. Obama has throughout the primary season called for universal health care. Yet he has been shy to call for the single payer system. He has consistently laid out plans that will more than likely ensure many more Americans health care but would not offer a solution that would provide health care to the 47 million uninsured in the United States today. Cynthia McKinney is in support of the single payer system and wants to move insurance companies out of the health care conversation saying in November of 1999 that health care is a "right not a privilege". She also supports trimming the federal budget by drastically reducing defense spending. Both Sens. Obama and McCain argue they want to rid Washington of lobbyist influence and pork barrel spending. However none of them have proposed increased funding for the Department of Justice's Corporate Crimes division to pursue corporations and lobbyist illegally influencing Washington. Ralph Nader has proposed strengthening this division.

Many well reasoned Americans will look at the evidence presented and find a candidate that speaks to their needs more than the major party candidates. Ultimately the response will be that a third party candidate will never win, so why waste a vote. The main reason a third party candidate never wins is because so many people think of it as a wasted vote. If the people who truly supported the positions of third party candidates actually voted for those candidates the United States would have elected officials that represent more than just Democrats or Republicans. But until the voters assert what power they do have in a democracy, decisions will stay limited to the lesser of two evils.


http://www.runcynthiarun.com/
http://www.bobbarr2008.com/
http://www.blogger.com/www.votenader.org