I think it all goes to the point that there are a growing number of people in this country that want a radical shift in the way we are governed. Hence all these third party folks. No one individual feels that they can create change or even be heard on their own but people are holding out hope that a third party can be created that does in fact work to cause the shift they are hoping for.

The problem is someone needs to step up that can capture the imagination of a lot of people and make them feel that there is a viable movement there to be joined. The people need to be engaged. I'm sorry but Ralph Nader just ain't doing the trick. In order to get this done the individual does need to have charisma and a vibrant way of communicating ideas to attract attention and charm the media into paying attention. Ross Perot was the last guy to do that and although I didn't much care for the guy he did create a stir and got people to pay attention. Predictably that enterprise quickly lost steam and Ross is a footnote now.

I think the Green Party has failed so far to make a dent and they won't with the way they are approaching things. At best if they have a plan it seems to be a 30 year plan which will get them nowhere. They are a tool for Republicans to siphon votes from the Democrats. I've read a bit about third parties and how that movement needs to be built. First thing is running for president is the longest of long shots. We'll all win the lottery first. I'm not saying these protest runs are worthless but how many people did Ralph Nader swing this time out? Not many and those that he got are mainly the same small group that's stuck with this idea for quite a while. It's not growing. Nader did more damage than good to the movement he supposedly wants to try to create. You need to start these things at a local level and build up. Get some congressmen elected, some senators. Those campaigns with the right focus and money involved are workable and build the credibility of what you are trying to accomplish. Nader walked away from the Greens because he knew they weren't going to get him anywhere. There are lessons to be learned from all of these attempts and to me Nader has shown he has not learned them.

The thing is now, with the nation so divided, we are getting to the point where a large enough number of people are willing and waiting for someone to step up and lead them. They don't buy the Republican "family values" lie or the Democrats "two Americas" message. The Republicans have sold their souls to the corporate interests and religious right. The Democrats could not muster the backing to take down a candidate as weak as George Bush and have lost the entire heartland of this country to the phony "values" message of the neocons.

People voted their "values" in this election, not their wallet. The reason for that is that these campaigns were run specifically to separate us. They wanted to drive us to one side or the other and that's why it was so bitter and nasty. The Republicans have had their machine in place for years and have been chipping away at the Democrats with it and the Democrats have let it happen. They let it go too long and the Republicans wisely laid out and executed a strategy that was designed to turn words like Democrat and liberal into words with a negative connotation. They have done all they can to associate the word "elite" with the word "Democrat" and the word "liberal" with "evil" and it's worked beautifully. Look at all that red on the red and blue map for evidence. People bought it hook line and sinker and they now see voting for a Democrat as voting against all that they believe in. They think Democrats don't represent them. That a Democrat is some east or west coast intellectual that can't be trusted and looks down their nose at the "stupid" people that live in the middle of our country.

I think the Democrats have passed the point where they can win those people back. They should have begun defending themselves years ago. The thing is though more than half the people in this country don't share the same "values" as the people who elected George Bush. They also realize that government has a place and that place is not intruding on any aspect of your personal life. That's American. That's what being American is supposed to be all about. That's what freedom is! Freedom is not having a government dictate to you what you can do with your life or your body. Any legislation that crosses that line should immediately be crushed.

So voting for a presidential candidate based on the fact that he wants to restrict a segment of our society from being able to do something that the rest of our society is permitted to do is as un-American and unpatriotic as it gets. And it happened! That's how far we've moved away from what our founding fathers believed. We had a large segment of our society vote for a form of dictatorship, where our majority elected leader executes the narrow and close minded plan of a small segment of our society. In other words, you're free to be like we are and live by our beliefs...period.

That's why I was so convinced Bush would not win. Not just because of all the mistakes his administration has made but because with trying to enforce this "Christian agenda" they pushed I thought he'd turn the country against him. Unfortunately it seems that a good portion of the people who voted did not understand that. It seems what people voted for was to force people to "think like they think and live like they live" and it just may be the saddest moment in American history because we turned our backs on all this country once stood for and slammed the door shut behind us.

This group of right wing religious conservatives may feel that this victory somehow certifies their beliefs but in truth what they asked for and what they've won is more governmental control over our lives...they took steps to make our society less free and move toward a form of dictatorship. Anytime a segment of the society tries to force the rest of the society to live by their beliefs you are moving away from a free society.

Perhaps all this is what had to happen for us to get motivated enough to try to change things. With this new brand of Republicans running the whole show the game really is more fixed than ever. George Bush says winning this election was awarding him with political capital he is now going to spend. This is not an administration that will seek to bring us together now because that's not what has put them in the position they are in. They got there by tearing us apart, driving us away from civil discourse into shrill shrieking arguments about "values" and "evil."

Democracy is not about "the majority rules" it's about creating a fair and just society we can all co-exist in. A society that's fair to all. That grants us all the same rights and privileges. Majority rules once allowed slavery. A small group of people had to speak up and say this isn't right and then fight for change. It tore this country apart and took years and still today we have backwards folks that believe we never should have abolished slavery. Bad ideas don't go away and just because you can get a lot of people to believe in them does not make them right. If anything the job of government should be to prevent that kind of situation. Instead we have an administration that promotes it and it's shameful.