I want a viable third candidate, damn it. I still hate Bush just as much as when he took office in 2000, but I'm not crazy about Kerry, either. I greatly respect that he is pro-choice and believes in equal rights for everyone, but there are just some issues that he has been weak on for me, and I'm not convinced that he's going to get much of what he talks about accomplished once he's President.
I'm probably about as left liberal as one can be. If this were a multi-partisan democracy where all parties were given equal respect and weight in major elections, then I would probably be better aligned with what Nader stands for. I watched an interview with him on PBS the other day, and he said it perfectly. "We should live in a society where people feel that the best option is to vote for the party that best fits their views, instead of what we have today where people feel that it's more important to vote against what they hate." I probably didn't quote him exactly, but that's close to what he said, and it's completely true in my situation. I would vote for Nader if it didn't mean that it would give Bush the majority of votes in the election. Instead of voting for the party that wants what I want, I feel obligated to vote for the guy who has the best chance to defeat the current administration. It sucks, but it's the reality of the situation.
That program on PBS also featured the other major third party candidates, such as Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and Peroutka of the Constitution Party. David Cobb (Green Party Candidate) was on the program, too, and he described a new approach to voting that I would love to see put into place. It's a priority listing method where the voter would list their top three picks for President, and the choices would then be weighted so that the first pick would receive more points then the second and so on. It would give third parties a decent chance at being viable, but it will probably never happen while the Republicans and Democrats hold the power in this country. There's no way in hell that they want to give that power up to other people. Plus, that means less votes for them during election time, and they certainly don't want that.
So yeah....I will be voting for Kerry when November 2nd rolls around, but it won't be because I believe he's the best man for the job. In this bipartisan system of politics, I'm just voting for who I believe is the better man for the job. *sigh*
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