Cybrpnk's Rantings

This year's ballot in California once again illuminates how poorly the initiative process serves the cause of good governance. In going through the annual ritual of trying to decipher just what all of these initiatives mean, the question I found myself asking over and over again is 'is this good policy.' The answer, regrettably, was generally either 'no' or 'who can tell?' Given last year's widely followed public lynching of our sitting governor, who was replaced by a charismatic but politically ignorant movie star, one would have hoped that finally the electorate was ready to confront their own role in creating the mess for which Gray Davis was blamed. Sadly, but predictably, rather than introspection we see a renewed rush to inflict false populism's short-sightedness on the state government.

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There has been a great deal of talk about polls lately. Steve Soto over at The Left Coaster has been writing a series of articles describing the poor methodology used by many of the polls getting lots of press. Apparently the samples they are using have disproportionately large numbers of self-identified Republicans. The result of the coverage of these polls is of course to discourage people who want to get rid of our Uncumbent and replace him with an elected president. Don't believe the polls. They are all based on the flawed premise that the voter turnout this year will match the pattern established in recent presidential elections. But the whole polling thing uncovers another flaw in our electoral system. As much as both candidates will claim that they don't pay attention to the polls, it is clear that in reality our elections have become massive marketing campaigns which are all about finding the right packaging, rather than sincere efforts to enable the electorate to get to know who the candidates are and what they stand for.

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I have this belief, perhaps misguided, that I am starting to come out of the current time crunch I have been in. The programming work for the get-out-the-vote project is largely done, work is calm for the moment, hopefully for not too long though. My one other task for this week was to do a bunch of baking. My wife is on the board of the Liberty Hill Foundation board, and I am the board baker. They have their annual retreat this weekend, so I had to make a lot of cookies. That all got finished up tonight, so back to politics.

I've been spending some time lately hanging out on The Left Coaster. That's a collaborative blog, all political, all left-leaning. Good people, and less consuming to put in short comments over there rather than writing my own long pieces. Plus it helps keep me on my toes and thinking. Anyway, one of the themes that has come up is questions about voting integrity, and inevitably, the 2000 Presidential election in general, and Florida in particular. I had an epiphany about this election fiasco, and realized that it is a mistake to get caught up in the partisan aspects of it. Forget about arguing over whether Bush won or Gore won, there's a bigger issue here.

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Just got back from seeing Fahrenheit 9/11. Definitely recommend it, but that's not what I'm going to write about. Instead I would like to talk about this year's election, the insanity of voting for anyone but Kerry, and the importance of ridding the country of our political parties.

I heard Arianna Huffington give a speech at a Kerry fundraiser recently. She addressed the question of how people should deal with reservations they might have about Kerry with this line: 'when your house is on fire is not the time to be talking about remodeling.' I agree with that. Given our dysfunctional electoral system, it is simply fact that the only people who have a chance to be elected this year are Kerry and Bush. If you are thinking of casting a 'protest vote' for anyone else, do not be deceived, that vote can help no one but Bush. It may make no difference at all, but it will do no good.

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