Kort Explores conundrums of the human condition

There is a growing perception in America today that our government is out of control and threatening our basic liberties. As citizens, our most effective tool in controlling and guiding our government is the vote. But most Americans don't vote. Some of the most commonly heard excuses are that their votes doesn't count, or they don't approve of either of the main party candidates. Unfortunately, within the context of a restricted two-party system, these complaints are largely true.

While I'm still "allowed" to vote, the electoral system has been so totally subverted that my vote has been made meaningless within the context of the current two dominant parties. All of the rational candidates were already eliminated before I was "allowed" to participate in the primaries. In the upcoming elections, the polls will have already closed in the East and the winner been announced before I even get to the polls to cast my "vote".

However, I can make my vote count against the subversion of the electoral system by voting for the minority parties. The Republicans and Democrats do everything they can to convince us that the Libertarians, Reform Party, and others are irrelevant and without any chance of influence on the process. This will only be true if we continue to believe it. In spite of the lies and distortions perpetrated by those desperate to protect their power and privilege, simple mathematics indicates that there are more people who don't vote for the mainstream parties than vote for them.

In the last presidential election, Perot got 20% of the vote - enough to scare the old guard, and inspire a years long smear campaign in the sycophantic media to eliminate any future threat. This time the political operatives who control the presidential debates have already declared that Perot doesn't have a chance of winning and therefore has been excluded. In the past the self proclaimed power brokers maintained at least a facade of counting the votes before telling us who we'd elected.

Once again our political process is being hijacked and manipulated to impose a predetermined result on us against our will.

We will continue to suffer from a malignant government infected by too many of the worst possible people in positions of power as long as we allow ourselves to be denied meaningful choices. It is still possible for voters to take back the power that has been robbed from us by the two dominant parties. We may not get many more opportunities to save ourselves before those who have stolen our power move to deny us even the sham elections we pretend to participate in now.

We must break the power monopoly of the corrupt old guard political parties and bring people into government who truly believe in honesty, freedom and the founding principles of our still great nation. The balance of power would change overnight if everyone who was dissatisfied with the appalling mainstream candidates voted for the minority parties. I intend to vote for liberty and to return power to the people where it belongs.

Only when we as a people reject manipulation by the vested interests will we be able to elect real people who are free and uncompromised by conflicts of interest, people who are strong and principled enough to clean out the malignant corruption festering at the core of our government.

Your vote can count if you want it to.