I’m feeling very independent-minded these days about the upcoming elections. What with the leading candidates from both parties serving a master that I can’t quite see and definitely don’t understand, it’d be impossible to feel anything but disenfranchised. But there’s something interesting happening on reddit, digg, and You Tube: Independent-minded candidates Ron Paul and Mike Gravel are getting a lot of attention. They resonate with a pretty big bunch of people. I’m not talking partisan politics here. I’m talking about a couple of guys who surprise us with their honesty, and their sincerity.
So, when I stumbled upon this story at the Daily Kos (not something I read very often…I saw it on Reddit) it really hit me that this could be the best and most important election year in my lifetime. Now, I’m not imagining that the big party politicos are going to accept either of these guys. And, they’ve raised so little money that it’s almost laughable to think they might make it to the primaries, much less take the nomination. But, the day is coming when the Internet is going to decide a national election (some say it’s already happened, in the form of voting shifts large enough to hand the office to another party…perhaps the Greens diversion of votes away from Gore cost the Democrats the election, perhaps not). Maybe this is the year.
My daily web browsing doesn’t include any overtly political websites, but Reddit does have its share of politics coverage. It’s probably biased. I’m probably completely out of the loop on who can be a contender. I get the impression that the mainstream media don’t want to cover Ron Paul or Mike Gravel. But maybe the mainstream media have reached the level of irrelevance needed to allow some independent candidates to rise to the top. I don’t know.
Anyway, the idea of an election pitting Mike Gravel vs. Ron Paul has me feeling a little light-headed. Y’all start talking about it. Get a bumper sticker or something. Really, tell your friends. (These guys are both solid on the issues that you, dear reader, and I almost certainly agree on: privacy, Internet rights, ending the war. Interesting how the two parties leading candidates are aligned against us on those issues, and yet I feel confident assuming you agree with me. Something’s wrong with that sort of system.)
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