While the "anybody but Bush" camp currently is dictating the terms of this year's election, I disagree that Nader's efforts to draw attention to the need for change in our 2 party monopoly system is just about Ralph's ego and (I have a real problem with this claim) desire to punish the Democrats by being an election spoiler.

Many intelligent, reasonable people see a need for electoral reform in the US, and not just of the campaign finance system. Many people believe the time has come to reform the system itself in a myriad of ways. One way people feel the system needs to be reformed is the electoral college. Other reform minded people believe the time has come to implement some form of proportional representation, which the other successful democracies have, to open up the system to more voices, and become more inclusive of our citizenry's interests.

Now then, the "anybody but Bush" movement is really nothing more than a bunch of fear mongering Henny Penny types. For them, the sky is falling every four years, and every single election cycle is a crisis because they fear their guy won't win, and they'll have to put up with the other guy's policies.

Now, I happen to believe that Bush's policies have had a negative influence on the nation and the world. But I also believe he has only been successful at implementing those policies as quickly and easily as he has, because of nearly universal cooperation in doing it from the Democratic party.

I also believe that the Democratic Henny Pennies don't have much faith in the system to withstand the occassional extreme right wing takeover we are currently enduring in the US. I do believe the system is strong enough, and that eventually the American people will put the bums out. But not until the American people come to understand that the bums are working against their best self-interests.

So the suggestion that the only thing that matters in this election is getting rid of Bush, is wholly disingenous, and runs completely counter to democratic traditions. In a democratic society, especially at election time, open and vigorous debate, using our best critical thinking skills (if the Democratic Henny Pennies even possess critical thinking skills, that is) to both realistically and clearly identify the problems we are facing, as well as try and come up with a few new solutions to try, is what we should be focused on, not the horse race, and not the cult of party personalities.

When one takes a long, thoughtful view of what is best for the country, the person who is president matters much less than the actions taken by the citizenry and ALL of their elected representatives.