View From the Bushes

Well, contrary to my expectations (okay, actually it wasn't that surprising) straying into politics resulted in what I think was the most commented upon entry ever. Maybe I'll have to do all politics all the time from now on. Of course, the 800 pound gorilla of political discussion at the moment is the presidential election. In 1988 I was too young by four months to actually vote, but I was a member of the high school Republicans. I even ended up in a Bush campaign video (actually I think it was only my feet, but what kind of story is that?)

In 1992 I was in the Netherlands. I suppose I could have voted via an absentee ballot, and I could have written my novel by now, but I would have to actually have something resembling ambition for those two things to have happened. By 1996 I had figured out that my presidential vote, especially if cast for one of the two major party candidates didn't mean squat in Utah. (Slate did an Election Scorecard which showed Utah as having the highest support for Bush of any state in the Union.) So I decided my vote would be most effective if cast for a third party candidate.

In '96 I voted for Harry Browne, the Libertarian candidate, who I was actually pretty impressed with. In 2000 Harry ran again, but this time I voted for Nader. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single issue where I had the same opinion as Nader, but I figured with enough votes he might increase the clout of all third parties. This year I am once again definitely not voting for one of the big two, and from what I hear the Libertarian candidate may be a joker short of a full deck (or perhaps have one joker to many).

I'm not voting for Nader again either. He had his chance to show that he was a viable third party candidate; this time I think he's just running on sheer hubris. Having eliminated those four, there's not many choices left, though checking out the State of Utah Presidential Site, it looks like we must have really lax requirements for getting on the ballot because there are a ton of candidates. Maybe I should vote for "HRM Caesar St Augustine De Buonaparte."

At this point I'm actually leaning every so slightly towards voting for the Constitution Party Candidate. I have a friend who is running for Congress on their ticket (though not in my district), and if I can vote for Nader then it should be obvious that I really have no standards.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross