Three Party System

This image may be taking the low road but with Halloween just around the corner I could not resist it. Incidentally, it is a real photo. No playing with the digital image. McCain said he made the face because he once again tried to walk off the wrong side of the stage. Message there?

I will leave that argument for commentators. I was more interested in a statistic I read today about the numbers of Republicans and Democrats in the United States. For European readers we are not evenly split. Nor is everyone in the United States Republican or Democrat.

In 2004 these two parties were evenly split with 37% of registered voters each. Which left 26% of registered voters "Independent". Read "Independent" as none of the above which is sometimes the only choice you get besides Republican and Democrat. There are Libertarians, Green Party, American Communist Party and yes, the American Nazi Party in some states. But few of those "also rans" manage to rally to the primaries. So some people, especially here in the Mountain West, will list themselves on the rolls as Republican or Democrat in order to vote in the primary and have a voice that early on. But I digress. That may be an entirely different blog.

Today the Democrats are 37% of the registered voters (less the newly registered which have not been effectively counted yet) and the Republicans are only 29%. That less than a third of the voters in the US is now radically split between the "educated conservatives" (their term) and Joe Six Pack or the "religious right."

So both parties have been playing the the independents to put their brand over the top in this election. This is just a guess but I think the 9% drop in registered Republicans defected to the Independents because of their unwillingness to be connected with that extreme religious right the Republicans have been courting the last few elections.

Do we have a three party system? No, because independents are just that - independent thinkers. And that is especially true here in the Mountain West. Many of us moved here because we did not like the rank and file of corporate America or big city living. We are very right on some issues - we want state control of our water and other resources. And very left on others - for me that is a woman's right to control her own life, but we are very independent on our liberal issues. Getting independents to agree on issues of importance to them is rather like herding cats.

Can any two parties pull us into their fold? I doubt it. Can McCain find the right direction to exit the stage? I doubt it.

Open Letter to the Democratic Party

That's it I am out of here. I am going down to my county office and re-registering as an Independent. The opening forays of the primary process was very encouraging but things have degenerated to the same awful political slime campaigns I hate. And I know where to place the blame.

And if you think the Democratic party is going to come together behind this candidate you have another think coming. I frankly am very closely watching who John McCain picks for his Vice Presidential running mate. And if I like him I am going there. Frankly there seems to be only one really wrong choice he can make; Secretary of State Rice. And not because she is a woman or black but because of her worship of GW Bush.

I think Hillary and her husband have played every single dirty trick in politics that is possible to play. And like GW she seems to have absolutely no conscious. She wants what she wants and she does not care a damn who she hurts. Reminds me a lot of Richard Nixon which historians now agree was a sociopath. Maybe President Clinton was like that too but he hid it better. Maybe all people that claw their way to positions of power are willing to do anything to get there. But what does that say of our leadership?

The more dirty tricks Hillary plays the more I would never vote for her, the more I would vote for anyone but, and the better Obama looks. Maybe this smear campaign she is on will betray her. Women love to rescue underdogs, especially the beaten and abused ones. Hillary is not a nice person.

And where has 12 years of Bush dynasty gotten us? Why would we want 16 years of a Clinton dynasty? I frankly think if Obama does not get the Democratic nod here we should launch him as an Independent candidate. It is about time this sick two party system comes to an end. It does not serve this country well. I don't know if it serves the people of this country AT ALL.