This election is no popularity contest. Citizens are not looking for the best- dressed candidate or the one with the most campaign dollars. Prescription and tax-cut issues are weighing upon the minds of most voters. There are four candidates for president. That means four choices. Do not cancel out all or some of the possibilities if you are fed up with the country’s two-party political system. Even though the country is set up to have two major parties, there are other parties with sensible candidates and ones that dive right into the issues on the minds of Americans.
Al Gore is concerned with erasing his eight-year record with Clinton. He’s into personality makeovers and human interest reviews. He wants more government and wants to see the budget surplus reinvested in government programs. George W. Bush knows how to skip and dodge all of the important questions and stick to rousing the crowd with his hometown America rhetoric. He wants taxpayers to get a break from the budget surplus. Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader, Reform party candidate and Green party candidate respectively, have had little say in this election because of the two-party system. Nader and Buchanan have been joshed for their attempts to seriously run for president because of the predetermined supposed Democrat or Republican victory. It is true that the winner is usually from one of the two major parties. This makes logical sense because it appears that the majority of citizens support the major parties as opposed to the smaller parties.
Nader has been vocal on where he stands. There is no question that he vehemently speaks for what he believes. Buchanan has been less direct and more ambiguous, but proposes important issues that may open wide the door for smaller parties in the future.
This election can be a wake-up call. Don’t follow the masses. The Republican and Democratic parties do not appeal to everyone. Many of the issues in this election such as campaign-finance reform go against the major parties and call for fairness of distributed funds to presidential contenders. The population of the country is a diverse one and two parties can only represent two platforms. This nation is a collection of many minorities and many platforms.
There are five days left until election day on Tuesday. Find out what you can about the other possible candidates and go to the polls on Tuesday and support the right candidate. Support the candidate who you think will execute the office of the president in respect to your values and ideals, not the values and ideals that are force-fed by expensive campaigning.
