If Obama was a poor choice for the country, then what was the American people’s other choice? Bush failed US, but I am not blaming him alone. Please remember that it all bagan back in 1980 with the preNAFTA agreement. Do you remember Ronald Regan’ signature that changed the law developed after WW2 forbidding corporations from relocating overseas or importing forighnoers to undermine US wage standards? Do you remeber “The Great Sucking Sound” America? Do you remeber the warnings of Mr Ross perot? Well guess what……he was right!!!

As for voting for Nader or any of the others is a dead loss!
Nader lost a grand opportunity to become a National and World celebrity ( and his electoral chances would have skyrocketed) if he had insisted on his rights to attend the Republican convention as an observer and not submit meekly to the cops’ charge of trespassing and threat to lock him up.
24-48hrs in a prison cell would not do him any harm and would reveal to the world that the American electoral process rivals that of a banana republic like Zimbabuwe.

Letters to the editors of the Rutland Herald, Times Argus, Burlington Free Press might help to expose this problem. Letters to the editor of the Bennington Banner often are ignored and not published.

We have to get the word out. Unfortunately, people don’t know, what they don’t know.

Feel free to e-mail me at dissent@sover.net

This is not about a Party at this time, but about an alternative vote against the two parties.

I’m voting for Greens on the ballot (local and congressional), but will vote for Nader because I do believe his stands and postions. My state is running a20 – 25% lead for Obama. In effect a vote for Obama is meaningless. My vote for Nader (who is on the ballot, McKinney is not) will be more meaningful. It counts me among those who are saying the two parties have failed.

I think local movements, and change are essential as we go forward. Parties, such as the Greens, can be the political extention of the movement, NOT the movement.

It is appalling the blatant censorship of information in your region, considering especially that Vermont is one of the most progressive states in America. Such a sign of the times we live in, expeiencing the rapid transformation of the United States into a fascist country. I live in Plattsburgh, New York, a cultural and intellectual wasteland. I, too, am being denied information, as most Americans are. My suggestion would be to subscribe to news magazines such as The Progressive, Harper’s, Lowdown, and The Nation. Visit their websites. With the exception of The Nation, these highly informative newspapers are only $10-$15 for a year’s subscription. This is your only chance, sadly, of keeping yourself informed. Far too many mainstream newspapers are run by special interests now. Good luck to you!

It never happens the other way around. Why not ask the Dem or Repub candidate to drop out?

I would like to ask Mr Gonzalez, as Nader’s running mate, what the hell happened to that United Front based on 4 principles bringing together Paul, Nader, McKenney, Barr and someone else I don’t remember now his name.

Secondly, if this United Front is still alive, well and kicking, why the hell there are four running presidential candidates (Paul being not in the race now) who individually are not likely to get a double digit percentage of electoral votes or hardly a beep in the radar screen. There is no better example of the dictum DIVIDE and RULE than this one. The two puppets Obama and McCain will be delighted to have it all to themselves and the puppeteers assured that whoever wins will still be in their pocket.

Thirdly, and this is my point, why the hell these 4 presidential outsiders don’t come to an agreement, even at this late hour, and decide that only ONE should run and the others gracefully drop out and urge their respective supporters to vote and back him.

Should Ralph Nader be the chosen candidate, good!
Who knows he might even come second and displace McCain to third place and with a extra bit of luck, who knows! even be elected president!
I’m sure that by even coming second or a close third would scare the shits out of the puppeteers!

I think that opening up the debates would help, BUT there are just too many who are in denial in the USA. It is like being in a Perfect Storm with school text books misrepresenting history, the culture glorifying war, the media blackout on some candidates, and no access to information in many areas. Many candidates have been ‘Naderized’. Example – the whole southern part of Vermont has an information blackout. The legislature wrote a law that would provide an Candidate Information guide to citizens. Legislators assumed that if taxpayers paid for the printing, newspapers would insert and deliver it with their normal delivery. Newspapers in the southern part of the State refuse to cooperate. In addition, the newspapers censor out some candidates. It is happening right now as I type this. No laws are being broken, but there sure is a shortage of journalistic ethics here.

Newspapers are having a rough time now but if there is anyone who can start a small newspaper in southern Vermont, PLEASE – we need help here.

Majority electorate votes (rather than plurality) with an Instant Run Off Vote (ranking candidates in order of preference) will eliminate the idea of “spoiler” and allow for a relatively level playing field for 3rd parties and as well as giving the public a wide variety of candidates and ideas.

Prop. Rep. is a great idea but it’s a bit more complicated in a non-parliamentary form of government. That would allow for many different factions/parties in the Congress proportional to the number of votes they garnered. So, if the Greens got 20%, they would have 20% representation in the Congress.

I completely agree with the value of changes to facilitate a robust democracy. IRV is possible on all elections with little to change State wide or local (charters). On the Presidental level we have a little Constitutional problem: Electoral College. That’s a winner take all system and would require a constitution amendment to get rid of.

Represational government makes sense for large populations such as the US; but it is far from optimal regarding democracy. Whenever you send someone off to a place where they must cozy up to other interests, the representation get diluted. Proportional Rep. is a positive move to include the millions of people who have no representation (neither Dem or Repub.).

Human scale participatory democracy is the ideal that is worthy of serious attention. Scales not exceeding 100,000 people. People are included to a scale of under a hundred; but given the population we can concede somewhat larger to retain direct democracy.