Right, the voting thing. There’s a lot of complaint out there about the two-party system, how much it sucks, how it results in two parties that differ in name only, how it suppresses the real desires of the people, etc. The night before the election, I was reading through the local voting guide published by the League of Women Voters and paying particular attention to the third-party candidates for various offices. The following are all direct quotes from candidates’ personal statements.
From a candidate for governor, when asked how he would propose to bring additional revenue into the state budget:
Bring good paying manufacturing jobs back to America by replacing the federal income tax with revenue tarriffs.
Perhaps someone should review the difference between “governor” and “Congressman”.
From another gubernatorial candidate, when asked what specific proposals he had for increasing jobs in Michigan:
[Corporate welfare] has never increased the number of people employed and it never will. I will hire people directly, WPA-fashion, to do the State’s business.
Not sure how that’s going to balance the state’s budget there, buddy. Sounds like a massive increase in spending to me.
A candidate for attorney general had this to say about enforcing current environmental laws in Michigan:
The environment is very important. Government is guilty of pollution, as well as some private citizens. I would also work to see that new technology is not blocked by private interests to get more MPG fuel efficiency.
Say what who? This guy’s background, by the way, claims that he has a B.A. in languages and spent four years in the Air Force. Obviously English wasn’t one of the languages he studied.
A candidate for the Senate, whose background claims a B.S. in electrical engineering as well as “suggested the brake light in the rear window 7/7/77”, when asked about his concern for the size of the federal deficit:
Our constitution was written to eliminate flat paper money. [Perhaps “fiat”, as in “fiat money”, was meant here instead. — cl] Used God’s money of silver/gold. Today use our coins — eliminate paper. Twenty seven hundred years ago Isaiah spoke of the dump dogs that can’t bark in the [King James Bible]. Could that be our Federal Reserve System? Not Federal/No Reserve!
It gets better. The same guy, when asked what governmental measures he would implement to improve health care, said:
When the extended family was intact, Grandmother was the herbalist/primary care giver…God’s healing herbs are safe and effective without dangerous side effects. We should immediately train up and army of naturopathy doctors using God’s natural remedies including Colloidal Silver which cured my Lyme disease.
After reading these statements, it occurred to me that the reason these third-party candidates don’t enjoy wide support is because they’re so far out in left — or right — field that nobody but their friends and family (and probably not even many of those) take them seriously. We elect enough cranks without realising it; the last thing we need to be doing is electing self-proclaimed crazy people!
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