The Blog of toussaint

 
In 1990 i was 18 and so, as a good citizen, i registered to vote. Back then, you had to decide whether to be an R or D when you registered because if you registered as an Independent, you were not allowed to vote in the primaries unless an independent ran. It was like fate when, on the very day i was going down to the registrar's office i saw a commercial. It was for Clinton. He had not hit the national scene yet but he was advertising in his home state of Arkansas; and because I lived in Monroe, La., we shared some of the same T.V. stations. There was something about the message that made me want to hear more from him. i did not think much about it then but  i did end up registering as a Democrat. When i went back to school at the Univ. of Maryland (Go Terps!), there was a debate on campus for all the Democrats.   i don’t remember who was there except Paul Tsonges and Bill Clinton. They were both excellent but Bill somehow made me proud to be an American, especially one from the South. i decided i had to know more about this man, and everything i learned made me want to vote for him more and more. In 1996, he was doing such a good job that i wanted to re-elect him. Then in 2000 i wanted to do everything possible to defeat Bush, even more than i wanted to elect Gore. That brings us to 2004 when i wasn’t the only one to realize what a screw-up Bush was and i wanted him O U T !!! So, i stayed a Democrat.
 
 Even though i have always been independent, this is the first election that i will get to actually change my registration to (I) and keep it there because the rules have changed. i can now vote in either party's primary if i want to but i don’t think i will. Both parties have failed us and i am voting for whoever the Unity ’08 primary comes up with, no matter who it is, as a form of protest. i started to do that in 2000 with Ralph Nader because i believed he was so right when he said that there is no difference between the  two parties. Sure, around the edges they are different but both are bought and paid for by the same political interests. All lobbyists hedge their bets by giving to the party they believe will deliver for their clients and also to the opposition party members that can be bought. i am sick of it! Jack Abromoff gave more to Republicans but just slightly. He bought Harry Ried and “the hammer”, Tom Delay. i will no longer be a part of this corrupt system. 38% of voters in a recent poll said they were independent, but like me, they usually have to hold their noses and vote for the lesser of two evils.
 
In 8 months, both parties will have picked their candidates because by then 30 states will have had their primaries. They have front loaded the system to insure that who ever has the most money will win. No candidate will be able to fight against the system because you can’t campaign in all those states at once without a whole lot of cash for commercials. Do we really want to pick our next President based on 30 second sound bites or the 90 second answers they will give in these phony “debates”? 
 
So i am begging you to fight the system by registering for the Unity ’08 primary and voting for true change. Who ever they nominate will be someone from the outside who has a vested interest in shaking things up. Unity ’08 will nominate someone from both the parties so that we can ignore the 20% of idiots on both the right and left that have been destroying our country. If that does not work then i will write in a candidate but i don’t think i will vote for a Democrat or a Republican ever again. If we all turn our backs on them we will teach them a lesson for ignoring the electorate and insulting its intelligence. Then, there will truly be a pox on both their houses.