Churchill was right; Democracy IS the worst form of government

If you've voted in a few presidential elections, you might be starting to feel that strange sense of foreboding that grows steadily as we get closer to the big day this November. There's that feeling that regardless of who wins, we are going, in some way or another, to get screwed by our elected politicians.

In a two party system, unless you flat out agree with everything one candidate stands for (assuming that candidates actually STAND for anything anymore) you end up voting for the lesser of two evils. If, like me, you are cynical about politics, you can make the case that in a two-horse race, if you own both horses, you don't care which one wins. And that, I think, becomes the problem when you get big corporations and other entities with fat checkbooks who contribute to both parties campaigns. For the rest of us, we are stuck with voting for the lesser of two bought and paid for evils--or is that the lesser of two weevils?--A Weevil being a small beetle that is destructive to nuts, grain, fruit, etc. Yeah, that sounds about right.

So maybe we should go with a three or four party system like some of the European countries have? Certainly there is more chance of finding a candidate or party with much more similar political views to yours, but the chances are that in an election, the winning party will not have a clear majority to govern, and will end up cutting deals and forming alliances with one or two of the other minority parties and compromising their political position in order to get anything done. That brings us right back to where we started.

Perhaps by the time the general election comes around, it's already too late for us as voters to be truly effective; like waiting for the Superbowl before you root for a team. it seems to me that the time to really influence politics is during the Primaries. It's the only chance you get to weed out the undesirables and settle on a candidate who may actually share your values. Then, you just have ti watch that candidate like a hawk to make sure that big money doesn't corrupt him and turn him to the Dark Side of the Force.

So there you go; Sucks doesn't it?

Oh, but I didn't finish Sir Winston Churchill's quote: "Democracy is the worst form of government. except for all the others."