Monday, October 10, 2016

Should we pick the lesser of two evils for President? (August OFM column)

 [The following was written for the August Hearthstone Community Church newsletter...and for some reason, I didn't share it on the blog here...but given that I am pissing people off today:]

[A month] from now, the American people will elect the worst President ever. This will continue a trend that has been going on for the entirety of American history. And it does not matter who you vote for, half of the country will think that you wasted your vote on a meat popsicle without a brain or ethics. But on a bright note, the longest election cycle ever will finally come to a close. 

Our current election cycle started nine years ago when one political party nominated and then elected the worst person for the job. The only proper response to this was for the other political party to do everything that they could to prevent the President from doing anything while in office. And that is the plan for this election too. 

(Pardon the lack of proper names in this article; I plan on recycling this article eight years from now because history is going to repeat itself. And I don’t want to go to the effort to having to Mad-Lib the names out.)

After all, we have Lex Luthor running against the Joker…though I am little confused about which one is which. Somehow, the two main political parties in this country have managed to find the two biggest villains in America, deciding that the greater evil is somehow the solution, and we are going to be stuck with one of these villains. Both are brain dead; both are crooks; and both are completely wrong for America. 

Or so, I have been told numerous times. 

Exactly whose fault this is, depends upon who you ask. But it is someone’s fault, just not yours. And just remember that we could be living at the dawn of a new golden age, if only people would be sensible, and vote for the right person…except that half the country already believes that the right person is the biggest disaster to happen to the United States in its entire history. 

I must admit that it worries me that half the country already believes that whoever gets elected is a bigger menace to the United States than anyone who has served before them. “They are not my President” will be uttered by half the population while encouraging their chosen political party to do everything in their power to stop the President from accomplishing anything. 

And so the slow descent into madness will continue in this country. And there is really nothing that we can do about it because enough people have accepted this reality to make it true. 

Among the ideas that are always trotted out at this point is the idea of not voting. Sorry, just because you did not vote, it does not make you innocent in the fact that American politics are a complete mess. You want to know how politicians treat those who do not vote? They ignore non-voters—your concerns do not matter. Yes, it gives you the moral high ground, but at the price of not mattering at all. 

Another idea is to vote for a third party. I will admit that part of the problem with this country is that we have fallen into a two party system that exists more to serve the needs of politicians and special interests than it does to serve the American people. But having more than two political parties is not a magical bullet—just look at some of the nonsense that happens in countries that have more than two political parties—it looks much the same, except that it is harder to put all the blame on a single political party for screwing everything up. Yes, we need more options, but is this really the time to try creating a viable third option?

Yes, that is right—I don’t consider any of the existing third party options to be viable. In fact, I would actually argue that at least one of the existing third parties is a vanity party; it is nice for stroking one’s ego while saying that you are not part of the problem—but let’s be honest, if the third party candidate is not on the ballot in all fifty states, then that political party is not actually serious about challenging the status quo. 

The only real solution is a hard ugly one—years and years of people voting in every election, so that we have better politicians in play. That means we have to pay attention to politics in every election, not just every four years. That means voting for people running for dog catcher and whatnot. And that includes those who want to see a viable third party. A viable third party needs to have voters that turn out for it in every election, year in, year out. 

And yes, I know that sounds like a lot of hard work. But the alternative is having to pick between the lesser of two evils. Remember that correcting the political system is a marathon, not a sprint. We should not have to choose between Lex Luthor and the Joker….but seriously, it will probably remain that way forever because too few voters want to do the work (aka knowing the issues and voting every election) to fix the system. So please welcome the arrival of the worst President in history—at least until we nominate and elect someone even worse which is sure to happen in the next Presidential election cycle.

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