One thing that would help with the "winner-take-all" aspects of our electoral system would be to institute something called "preferential voting." Preferential voting has the major advantage of allowing people to vote for the candidate that they really want without fear of taking a vote away from an acceptable major party candidate—one who is preferable to the other major party candidate.

The way it works is that you rank the candidates on the ballot. Using the past election as an example, Charlie, a Green, could vote for Nader as his #1 choice, and Gore as his #2 choice. Then, if it becomes obvious that Nader is not going to amass enough votes, Charlie's vote automatically transfers to Gore. That way, Charlie can freely vote for whomever he really wants with less fear that someone completely unacceptable will get into office. Charlie might not think Gore is all that hot, but, no matter how you slice it, he's better than the other guy (see last election)! At least Gore's concerned with the environment (wrote a book on it), he would have handled the aftermath of 9/11 at least as well as Bush did (and probably better), and he wouldn't have led us into trying to take over the world (because he doesn't have Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Rove, and that bunch telling him what to do and how to do it).

It would be good if this were nationwide, but that would probably take a Constitutional Amendment, which would make it pretty hard to do, and, of course, it would undoubtedly meet a lot of opposition from vested interests (the two major parties).   I think that individual states could adopt this, and that might make it easier, but it would take longer—if ever.

In the meantime, trying to take over the Republican Party has some interesting aspects, but I think you'd find it a lot easier to move in, grab a waffling Democratic Party by the nose, and leading them in the right direction. Pound heavily on getting them to take a position instead of just say "Me, too! Me, too! Back to espousing domestic programs, fixing unemployment, stopping rampant corporate corruption, doing something about affordable health care, preserving Social Security and the social safety net—all of the traditional Democratic Party causes that they seem to have forgotten about. Restoration of civil liberties should be a major theme. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to point out loudly that those who call themselves "conservatives" are the real radicals, trashing the Constitution and leading the United States away from its traditional valuing of peace, justice, freedom, and equality, and turning it into a crypt-fascist society led by puppets of mega-corporations hell-bent on eroding our civil liberties and whose eventual goal is world conquest, by political and economic means if possible, or military means if necessary (it's all there, written in the neo-Conservatives' own words, in the Project for a New American Century. If you haven't read it, look it up and do so).

Give the voters a real choice.

Don Firth