To those who read this:  this article was originally posted on my Blogspot blog, where I do the majority of my blogging these days.  But because Whip is so insistent that I stick around, I thought I'd give you all a taste of the urine and bile you're all missing out on over there.

So here goes.  Whatevs.

It seems that every election I'm confronted by the same situation. (And this is on almost every level - local, state, and national.) I'm given a slew of lackluster candidates - a whole cavalcade of sycophantic party-first types, who are more proud of the letter next to their name declaring their affiliation rather than the country/state/city they want to serve.

If you want evidence of that, one must look no further than the House of Representatives. To begin with, Speaker Pelosi should never have made such an inflammatory, partisan speech concerning the bailout deal - and that's her bad. (But it's the sort of thing we've come to expect from the woman.) But the reaction of a whole score of Republican senators, saying they voted it down because her speech was 'too partisan' is embarrassing. They're putting their party miles ahead of their country, and their stupidity is going to cost us. Dearly.

Frankly, either the Democrats or the Republicans had the opportunity on Monday of being heroes - of putting partisan issues behind them and working for the common good (you know, that whole government being for the people instead of for the party thing). Instead - and as per usual - it dissolved into petty squabbling and nothing was accomplished. I'd hate to say I'm shocked, but mostly I'm just disappointed.

So what do you do? I endeavor to be an informed voter, one who knows his candidates, knows where they stand on the issues of most importance to myself, and I try to vote accordingly. The problem, however, is so many of these candidates that are offered us by the two big parties (which, the more you think about it, are really just two heads of the same beast), they're (in a word) horrible. And you talk to the people around you, try to take a barometer reading of what they are thinking and what way they're planning to vote, and there's one phrase that seems to repeat consistently, and almost across the board, regardless of political party:

'I'm voting for so-and-so because s/he's the lesser of two evils.'

Yes, that's the justification so many of us give as to why we're voting for who we vote for. I know that more than once I've cast a ballot for X candidate more as a protest to Y candidate than anything else. (Example: I don't even remember who ran against Rob Bishop for the House of Representatives in Utah's first district in 2006, but I know I voted for him because I would not, under any circumstances, give that despicable career politician Bishop one more vote.) And frankly, I think that's a tragedy.

Ralph Nader explained why this is so bad better than I could in his book Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender when he explained what happened to the Democratic party in the eighties, and how horribly spineless, directionless, and 'samey' they became - and still are. He writes:

During the eighties, it became ever more clear that the Democrats were losing the will to fight. Business money pouring into party coffers melded into the retreat from progressive roots and then into an electoral tactic that argued for defeating the Republicans by taking away their issues and becoming more like them.

The energy to strike out on a path extending the great American progressive tradition was quickly leaking out of the Democrats like a tire losing air. The party would address its Democratic tactics by defining itself by the worst Republicans instead of becoming better. "Do you know how bad the Republicans are on this subject?" would be the standard reply. Buying into the lesser-of-two-evils argument simply meant that every four years both parties would get worse and be rewarded for it. (27-28, bold mine)

And it's only become worse and worse. That's why Ralph runs for president - he can't work from withing the system any more because the system's too broken. And I think I'm quickly drifting away from party politics altogether. I'm almost sure that while I live in Utah I'll stay registered a Democrat, but once I live in a less-Republican area (which prompts me to be a Demo if only to see people's rich reactions to the news when I tell them as much) I'm rather certain I'll shuck the party and be truly unaffiliated.

Because toeing the party line is ofttimes choosing the lesser of two evils. And I don't think that's the way things should be.

I'm Braeden Jones and I approved this message.