The Devil is in the Details

Every four years the United States holds an election for the position of president of the United States. As I have grown older, I have strongly felt that I was not voting for the candidate I wanted but rather the lessor of two evils. I also wondered why the choices have always whittled down to two candidates: Republican and Democrat.

The presidential election of 2000 was between George W Bush (Rep) and Al Gore (Dem). Also running during that election was an activist by the name of Ralph Nadar. Of every single election in my lifetime, I had lived long enough that my candidate had arrived.

To say I was a fan was a huge understatement. He was the epitome of what I wanted to see in my government. He proceeded from a position of logic. He genuinely had the interest of the American people first and he was honest. This was the candidate I had waited to vote for my entire life. But it was not to be.

I include a link to the short documentary which I found on YouTube. I looked for it as I remembered and witnessed this for myself as it happened at that time. Take a few minutes and watch how his participation in that elections debate was thwarted by the powers that be:

Neither an apology nor a lawsuit settlement would ever repair the damage done that evening. In the end, George Bush beat Al Gore by only 543 votes in Florida. Gore needed Florida’s electoral votes in order to win the presidency. He did not get them. (Greenparty, 2024) Gore’s party blamed Ralph Nadar for his loss.

I also came upon this second video regarding details of how the presidential debates are managed. If not already aware, you will find this information to be very enlightening:

While I would like nothing more than to wrap this segment up in a tidy bow to leave you with, I am unable. We the people are being manipulated at every turn and as of the last election, arguing amongst ourselves as to which candidate will hurt us the least. We are reduced to people being forced to buy something when we don’t see anything we like. I have a very good idea of how people hate hearing me say this, but this is how I feel. I do not dislike (or hate) ANY Democrats – or Republicans for that matter. I hate the system. I hate that big business is controlling everything for their own interest. It’s all about money. More on that tomorrow.

References:

Green party, retrieved from the world wide web on July 11, 2024 from https://www.cagreens.org/alameda/city/0803myth/myth.html