Going to get deep for a second....where are the rest of the candidates?

It’s still more than a year. i.e., ¼ a presidential term, away from the 2008 presidential elections and the media are busy trying to whittle the candidates down. More than a year away and the major media outlets are well on their way to telling us that there are only two candidates, one from each major party. Poll after poll says that Clinton or Guiliani is ahead. When was the last time you heard about the other major party candidates like Dennis Kucinich (Dem) or Ron Paul (Rep)…and not to mention third party candidates like Jesse Johnson (Green) and Daniel Imperato (Libertarian)?

Why are the media saying that there are only a handful of candidates? I wish I had the answer, but I’m sure money is at the root of it. That and maybe sheer laziness. It is as if the everyday citizen is too dumb to choose among any option greater than 2. “Uh, I don’t know [scratching head with other finger in nose]. Maybe I should just flip a coin, cuz it’s way too confusin’.”

Several months from now when the parties make their candidates official, it will be back to the same old story: choosing between the lesser of two evils. Who’s gonna screw us less? If I may paraphrase the controversial figure, Michael Moore (whose politics I don’t necessarily agree with), at least you know the Republicans are screwing you. The Democrats would have you believe that they are actually doing the right thing. We don’t even get to hear what these other candidates are saying. If we had smellivision, you could tell that the major candidates are actually serving the same brand of reeking bullshit, some just has more corn in it.

One way to open the forum to more choice would be to have the option to vote online. Unfortunately, it won’t happen for a long time because the nay-sayers will tell you that it disenfranchises minorities and that it is not secure. Well, it would only be an option. You could still be able to vote at polling stations. As for the security issue, millions of bank transactions happen everyday and we don’t see an epidemic of people having their bank accounts wiped clean. Commission a university to come up with a secure method. Use quantum computing or whatever you need to. Of course, there will be opposition because it is in neither party’s interest to have online voting, because that means that you’ll have more 18-35 year olds voting and that could mean…(ready for this?) a third party emerging. Heaven forbid!

Since CNN and FoxNews won’t do it, take a few minutes and see what these other candidates have to say. Everyone running has a campaign website, and there are plenty of sites that summarize for you. At least you could have better water cooler conversation, and that’s how it all starts.