The YZA

Check out this interesting piece of news found here:

Imagine being in the voting booth and the only thing you have to go on is the candidates’ stand on the issues. Imagine voting purely based on a candidate’s record. Imagine not knowing anything about a candidate’s personality. Imagine not even knowing a candidate’s gender or race. Imagine that nothing would get in the way of making an educated, informed decision.

The Upper School Student Council imagined such an election and on October 28, 2008 five candidates addressed the entire Upper School. Under the direction of teacher Taylor Black, they presented issue-oriented platforms, presenting their stance on Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, abortion, the bailout, gay marriage, drilling for oil, immigration, death penalty, public education, and Israel.

The students listened and then they voted. It was only after they elected Bari Saltman that they learned they had elected Ralph Nader (Bari received 46% of the votes). Zak Sawyer stood in for McCain and received 4%; Emily Graham, being Obama, got 29% of the votes; Nia James represented the Libertarian Bob Barr and earned 2% of the votes; and Jesse Goldberg was Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and took 17%.

Now, these are 10th graders in Park Slope voting, so it’s no surprise that the result is in favor of a liberal, but who would have guessed that Nader would have won by a landslide? I am really curious what this experiment would look like on a larger scale among New Yorkers.

The reason I’m curious about how New Yorkers would vote if they were voting on candidates’ stances on issues and not on personalities is because I am a little shocked at how eager my friends here in NY are to ride the Obama train. Obama, in my eyes is a centrist, not a liberal or a progressive, and he has shown himself to be a lapdog of conservatives with money (see his speech at AIPAC headquarters).

Many of my friends who I would consider progressives, or “beardos”, have gotten behind Obama, and support him unquestioningly. I’m disappointed that they don’t ask for more from a candidate. I am keeping my mind open, and hoping that Obama will be an agent for real change, but I am doubtful. The Senate will likely be majority Democrat too, so I don’t want to hear any whining about not being able to get shit done.

It’s a bad situation when my progressive friends, the “beardos”, are rallying for the same dick that is head of Marketing at your company. Obama unites people, but is that really a good thing in this case? It seems like a case of progressive people compromising their views because they are sick of voting for the loser all the time. If people weren’t so afraid, and really voted with their instincts, we’d see someone like Nader elected.

At least he’s getting a little bit of mainstream press. On the page on which it’s hosted, you still have to scroll down on the interface to see the link to the interview (there are other “news items” listed)! At the top though: “The death of album art”. Somehow that’s more important than listening to Nader talk… and to be honest I almost clicked the link to that segment (and I probably would have forgotten all about Nader’s interview too). But goddamn if he isn’t still the most progressive and passionate political candidate. Vote Nader, damn it!

The Military-Industrial complex is winning! The Prison-Industrial complex is winning!

I’m watching Ralph Nader talk live at Cooper Union (on the internet). He’s the only viable presidential candidate as far as I can see. He’s the only person running that has any integrity and isn’t afraid to confront the issues in an honest way. It’s amazing to me how many of my peers that I consider intelligent people have just gobbled up the bullshit spewed by Obama and McCain and the rest of the syndicate.

In spite of his sometimes awkward speeches, he still warms my cockles. Goddamn I wish I lived in a world where they would let him debate (or hell, even let him INTO the debates!). I highly recommend An Unreasonable Man, a terrific film about Ralph Nader and all he’s done for the US.