Politics Today

First post, so I will clarify that I won't be voting for either the Republican Party OR the Democratic Party in the presidential election this November... already decided.

So if the mainstream media ruled the world, there would be two candidates left in the running for president. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Clinton would be on the way to her demise. In reality of course John McCain is still in the running as well, but he is on vacation or something while waiting for the Democrats to make up their minds... and meanwhile, Ron Paul is still gaining traction across the country from people who realize that they still do have a choice besides the two candidates who keep tripping over their own lies, or the lies of their friends... and in some cases just who their friends are when they are honest.

So about Ron Paul... yes, he is mathematically eliminated from winning based on MSM estimates of McCain delegates. In reality of course, across the country at local, county, and state conventions, the Republican party is so afraid of Ron Paul supporters that they are cutting and running from the legal process that they have used for years and years. Now technically they are private entities and they aren't bound by the legal process of voting that includes the "one man, one vote" concept... and this is ever more obvious in states right now like Nevada, Missouri, and various local conventions.

In Nevada, the Chairman declared recess and walked out when it was apparent that Ron Paul delegates were more numerous and were going to win nearly all of the delegates to the national convention. Why is this a problem? I don't know. Mitt Romney won the state primary several months ago, and Ron Paul came in second, beating McCain. Mitt Romney dropped out before his delegates were selected, so the process continues on without him. Why then would Nevada be required by their rulers in the party to send McCain supporters to the national convention when Ron Paul hasn't dropped out and has support? Who knows, but it seems that with the current indefinite recess that was never voted on (majority vote is required under Robert's Rules of Order) will cause no delegates to be sent from Nevada rather than sending a few Ron Paul supporters. Out of the 2200 or so delegates at the national convention, Nevada makes up about 31 total I believe, so even having 1.5% of the delegates being Ron Paul supporters doesn't seem to be okay with the Republican machine.

In Missouri, every single Ron Paul supporter that made it as far as the state convention had their credentials challenged. Now to be honest, there aren't any qualifications to being a delegate. All you have to do is show up to the caucus, which is generally after the primary, and have the people that show up choose you. From there it is the same thing only in smaller numbers and larger areas represented at the county and state level. Apparently since the delegates did not sign and swear an oath to support John McCain at the state convention, they were being dismissed as delegates. To me this seems to fly in the face of the whole point of the political process... but apparently, as I suspected many years ago, there is nothing fair nor representative about our voting process.

And this whole thing repeats itself over and over again across the country. In a town in west Texas a convention consists of the chairman standing up, completely ignoring calls to explain what he is doing while he reads a list of names, and afterwards people find out that the names on the list, many of the people not there, were those that were selected to move on to the state convention. Once again, those that are legitimately involved in the process are excluded based on the fact that they might not support who the GOP machine have chosen. In several locations in Florida, the same thing. Committees to select delegates have three people come in as part of the selection process, and the result is that the three alternates and three delegates selected do not include the people that actually show up.

And now, I hear that a lot of Independent voters, Libertarian Party members, Green Party supporters, and others who have no affiliation have banded together to try and put forth a voting bloc for the Constitution Party. I may just have to vote that way this Fall, but it depends on who their nominee is and what their poltics are. Yes, I actually vote based on someone's politics, not whether they wear flag pins, cry about how hard the process is, or were a POW 50 years ago. Nothing against any of those things, but they have nothing to do with politics.

And my favorite quote relating to this wonderous process...

"A vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil."