Fear and Loathing In An Electoral Democracy

For various reasons, I am an absentee voter this year. I cannot make it to my registered voting precinct on the day of the election. So, they sent my ballot last week, I filled it out, and returned it. Yes, folks, I have already voted.

When looking over the ballot, I saw the usual list of candidates running for offices I didn't even know existed, as usual. The University of Michigan Board of Regents? What? Oh, that guy's a Democrat? Okay, I'll vote for him, sure, whatever. I don't go to UofM, and probably never will, so it doesn't matter, does it? There's a similar list of candidates for the Michigan State University Board of Regents and the Michigan Board of Education. Finally! I saw a name I recognized. My old neighbor, Scotty Bowman (no, not the former coach of the Red Wings) is running for the MI Board of Education on the Libertarian ticket. Interesting.

So, of course, the first list of candidates that you come to are the presidential candidates. I know you know of the Democrats and Republicans. You might know the Libertarians and the Green Party, but have you ever heard of the Natural Law Party? How 'bout the US Taxpayer's Party? They have candidates on the presidential ballot. Seeing as how I had the ballot at home, and I had time to look it over, I decided to look into these 'other' parties. I already knew who I was voting for, but I was still interested in what the others had to say. So, as a service to my readers, I'm gonna provide some info on these other parties that exist on the fringe of the bi-partisan world.

• Libertarian Party: They refer to themselves as "The Party of Principle." Their basic platform is a commitment to America's "heritage of freedom," i.e. individual liberty and personal responsibility, a free-market economy of abundance and prosperity, and a foreign policy of non-intervention, peace, and free-trade.
• The Green Party: The "Greens" as they call themselves believe in the "radical vision" of grassroots political and economic democracy, nonviolence, social justice, and ecological sustainability.
• US Taxpayers Party: Apparently, this party was created in 1992, but are now called the Constitution Party. In 1999, they voted to change the party's name, but some state affiliates have retained the original name. Michigan is one of those states, this is why the ballots in Michigan say "US Taxpayers Party" instead of the Constitution Party. Their basic platform is to restore American jurisprudence to its Biblical foundations and to limit the federal government to its Constitutional boundaries.
• Natural Law Party: The Natural Law Party was founded in April 1992 to “bring the light of science into politics.” Their platform is kind of complicated, but definitely interesting. I'd like to see things get to a point where they could actually have a real shot at the presidency.

As you can see, I've provided links for you to check out each party. I highly suggest that before you go out and vote next week, you go to each party's site and check out their platforms.

My personal opinion is that the Libertarians have some interesting things going on, but too many people are fixated on their aggressive opinions towards the right to bear arms and decriminalizing some currently felonious drugs, such as marijuana. I'm fine with the latter, but against the former. The Green Party are also interesting and have some very positive things to say, but they were hurt significantly when Ralph Nader ran on their ticket in the 2000 election. He was perceived as being too much of a whiner, and I think that reflected badly on the party. The US Taxpayers Party, aka the Constitution Party sound like a bunch of weird leftist religious zealots. That scares me. The Natural Law Party I'm especially interested in for their focus on science, but like the rest of these, it may be a long time before a third party is a strong and worthwhile contender for the American presidency.