The Casino Election

The time is long past, folks. We've got a serious problem in our democracy, the most basic of problems. Our elections are a farce, and the only thing more darkly amusing is campaign season in the U.S. All the progressive, Libertarian, Green, Reform parties come out to make their bid for President. Some do it on the principle of the matter. Third parties should be able to run and win if the people so desire. I couldn't agree more. Others justify the bid not by allusions to winning or blindly following principles, but by claiming that their other bids for state level legislative offices or Congressional bids will be enhanced by fielding a candidate for President. That strategy appears rather dubious in the face of the facts. They are as follows:

1. The Electoral College is firmly in place and not going anywhere absent a miracle or disaster. Your vote for President is only counted at the state level. After that, your vote is aggregated with all the others of your state. So you live in a red state? Sorry, no vote. Consistent red states are rarely going to change for this specific election just because we want them too. Work all you want, spend bookoodles of money, no dice. Actually, if you had mega-bookoodles of money, like the elite 'i voted for the war but am now against it' Democrats, you'd have a better chance. Good luck with keeping your ideals and appealing to Goldman-Sachs for a campaign contribution.
So, you're going to carry New Hampshire? Great, you got a few elector college votes! Now what. Electoral College votes are worth nothing unless you get the most, and third parties don't stand a chance.

2. The media is corporate owned and no free-media is going to sweep the country to replace TV. Corporate owned media runs 24-hours a day/7 days a week. If you go out walking in the evening, as I am wont to, notice the ghostly blue glow coming from your neighbor's windows. Sure, they may be watching The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, but Fox has better ratings for some reason. And newspapers. I love the Arkansas FreePress,a hometown production, but it won't get close to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's readership. I consider small a virtue and not a curse here, but in any case it means that third party candidates are less likely to get coverage. The most listened to radio stations play music, ads, and extreme right-wing, yelling heads.
As a direct result of the mass marketing and production of televisions, we now have a nation of people who actually want to see, hear, and read loads of entertainment, entertainment, entertainment, and entertainment that's passed off as reasonable and reasoned speech. People love the flashiness of Fox, they laugh when Rush laughs, and they get angry when O'Reilly tells them too. Television has enforced a mass hypnotic state that has made about two-thirds of the population severely detached from reality. If you don't know what the US State Department's role was in the coup of President Aristide in 2004, and you don't feel even a little guilty shopping at Wal-mart or another big box, then you're definitely one of these

3. Who's up for another go round at Campaign Contribution Reform? Take it from me, it's never worked and will never work absent a miracle or a disaster. We've got plenty of history to look at for those who care, that's for sure, and I've no doubt we'll make some more. Bottom line is that unless the law allowing partial public financing of Presidential candidates is made full and mandatory, you still don't stand a chance. You'll quickly find the aforementioned for-profit media much favors the Democrat and Republican advertising over yours, and it favors elite-funded candidates over more populist ones. How does it do this? It charges exhorbitant amounts for candidates to use airwaves owned by the public. That's bookoodles.
When candidates are bought, your political voice is determined by your pocketbook and your influence. If you fundraise like a seasoned politician, you're going to have to compromise your ideals away. Next thing you know, you're trading votes and going with the lesser of two evils, just like you have to do as a voter. You give money to a campaign that's sure to fail, you give time, you get nothing back but a small ripple. Don't get me wrong. I am deeply endeared to Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney and love what they do, but is it reasonable to try over and over for a Presidency that's never going to happen? Yes, but only in one instance. Kucinich is only accepting individual contributions for his primary run. He's brought in 344k. He's spreading a message, yes, but to less people, because he's foresworn the money. Excellente!

But third party candidates for President?
Bad idea. You're wasting your money, letting it trickle up to the media owners among others. You won't be wasting your time, if you get to know people with similar values who you tell what I'm about to tell you.
The game is rigged. When you find out the game is rigged, what do you do? Keep playing? Try to devise some strategy to beat the owner of the rigged game? How about just stop playing?
Let's go play a game we know we can compete in, community organizing. Let's build gardens in unlikely places, most city parks departments will now help neighborhoods gain access to vacant lots for urban gardening. Let's start programs to offer green-collar jobs to the homeless and fresh food instead of processed crap for our school districts, and other exciting New Age programs that may not always be able to start with a government grant. Let's fully support our local farmers through Community Supported Agriculture networks (CSAs). We need to each, as the lefties we are, find more ways of relying on the people around us and making sure they know they can rely on us. Harder than it sounds sometimes, but there it is.
And above all, we need to write about the good things going on, and the better things we envision for the future.