First off, if you braved the rain to vote today, thank you. If you couldn’t be bothered, don’t regale me with your opinions: they’re worthless, and I don’t want to hear them.
The 2006 race has been one of the ugliest and most petty I’ve ever seen, and it’s gotten national attention. I’ve been bombarded with political attack advertisements on every media possible for the last few weeks, including the most offensive, on my home phone.
Hear me now: if you stoop to this, I will make a point of not voting for you. All it says is that you have no qualifications and no agenda worth putting forward.
Of course, that pretty much describes all the main traditional party contenders this year.
Even the challenger for the State Supreme Court ran an attack ad closely mimicking the 1988 Willie Horton ads. Other radio spots featured your typical Georgia soccer mom (with that godawful, over-affected southern drawl and hideous ring of self-righteous Christian arrogance) lambasting a candidate because he indirectly supported an abortion measure.
Which leaves the Libertarian party.
I’ve been a diehard Libertarian for quite some time, and we’ve always made some showing in Georgia, but from what I’ve seen and heard, we stand to make real gains this election. Of course, the circumstances could be better.
This is an election in which people are voting “none of the above,” and “none of the above” just happens to be the Libertarian ticket. I’d like us to succeed on our platform and on the merits of our candidates, but at the same time, I’m not complaining.
People keep saying, “we need a change,” and that’s what the party offers. We have a government which is steadily chipping away at our civil rights while growing into a bloated and impotent bureaucracy incapable of serving us. Neither of the traditional parties are going to change anything but appearances.
Look back at the Katrina incident for some elucidation. We have started to look like 1984, people. Despite their rhetoric, both the Republicans and Democrats are willing to sacrifice the Constitution to keep themselves fed. It’s time to remind the government who’s in charge.