political choices?

[bishop]

so, in gearing up for the upcoming mid-term elections, i've finally attempted to look at the different candidates who'll be on the ballot.

i'm in district 7, which only has ONE candidate on the ballot - democrat edward markey. my issue isn't specifically with markey, whose voting record i tend to support.. my issue is that having ONE candidate on the ballot does not represent having a choice. it's even less of a choice than russians had during soviet elections.

[JohnMK]

Comrade Bishop, your choice is clear.

[brien]

Quote by: bishop so, in gearing up for the upcoming mid-term elections, i've finally attempted to look at the different candidates who'll be on the ballot. i'm in district 7, which only has ONE candidate on the ballot - democrat edward markey. my issue isn't specifically with markey, whose voting record i tend to support.. my issue is that having ONE candidate on the ballot does not represent having a choice. it's even less of a choice than russians had during soviet elections.

Since there seems to be extreme polarization in the country these days, perhaps this is where the nation is heading.

I always found it odd that in states like Mass and Conn, the voters tend to send mostly Democrats to DC but then elect Republican Governors. Now, with Libertarians tending to gather in NH under the Free State Project, I am curious in my thinking as to whether the so called "Red States" will tend to attract Republicans and the so called "Blue States" will tend to attract Democrats, all seeking to consolidate their power in one state. And furthermore, if the nation tends to polarize its citizens by party affiliation, will this tend to lead to another secession movement by one party or another.

[bishop]

the free state project is a joke as far as i'm concerned.. if it really made a shred of a difference, then NH wouldn't have a democrat as a governor - but it does.

as for MA... there's no libertarian on the ballot for our gubernatorial election. aside from republican and democrat, there's an independent (who was recently a republican under romney) and a green party socialist. in this case, i don't mind as much because i like the republican on the ballot..

but really, it'd be nice to at least have a choice for the house seat.. and all of the other local offices are almost completely uncompetitve except for the few spots where there's a green party candidate on the ballot - which tells me that nobody else is really trying to get on the ballot except the greens.

[brien]

Quote by: bishop the free state project is a joke as far as i'm concerned.. if it really made a shred of a difference, then NH wouldn't have a democrat as a governor - but it does. as for MA... there's no libertarian on the ballot for our gubernatorial election. aside from republican and democrat, there's an independent (who was recently a republican under romney) and a green party socialist. in this case, i don't mind as much because i like the republican on the ballot.. but really, it'd be nice to at least have a choice for the house seat.. and all of the other local offices are almost completely uncompetitve except for the few spots where there's a green party candidate on the ballot - which tells me that nobody else is really trying to get on the ballot except the greens.

The Free State Project is growing and you should not discount it as dead yet. It will take much more time than any of them realize, but I can't totally write it off as of today.

Mass and Conn are somewhat singular states. They are so small, with a concentration of Democratic voters, and in CT 's case, independent voters who vote Democratic, that the effort to mount a credible campaign against the entrenched Democratic representatives, can be cost prohibitive. It is absolutely fruitless to run against Edouard Kennedy, even keeping in mind he was involved in a negligent homicide, which he denys to this day. If manslaughter won't pre-empt him from holding office, nothing will. I would bet dollar to donut if you canvassed Mass on election day when Kennedy is running, you would be hard put to find many people who would admit voting for him. It seems to me the voters want to send the same guy back every year because of the seniority issue, no matter what kind of person he or she is in reality.

Then again, you can always write in a candidate also.

[bishop]

if i even bother to vote, i'm just going to leave all the uncompetitive slots blank.

there's no point in voting unless you actually have the ability to choose from multiple candidates.

i suspect that the majority of seats out there only have one candidate on them, just as the case is over here.

[Milton Bradley]

Sounds like a good year for a write in campaign.


Get those ads ready.

[RVonse]

Quote by: Milton Bradley Sounds like a good year for a write in campaign. Get those ads ready.

But be careful what you write in. They say that many times those kind of ballets can get completely thrown away. If you're just going to write in Micky Mouse or Donald Duck you might as well stay home.

[bishop]

the write in vote would either be for mianus or my cat, larry - aka mr. lawrence mcduck.

[JohnMK]

Quote by: bishop the free state project is a joke as far as i'm concerned.. if it really made a shred of a difference, then NH wouldn't have a democrat as a governor - but it does.

Just a bit premature. The goal is 20,000 . . . so far over 7000 people have signed up. That's impressive. I don't think the pace is enough to reach 20,000 anytime soon . . . maybe within the next 5-10 years. A large factor is whether or not they succeed in publicity, and secondarily if people keep their commitment.

[bishop]

20k out of a current state population of over 1.2 million is hardly impressive imo..