America's only hope has no chance

The United States is the earth's oldest democracy, wealthiest nation, and most potent political force. So it's unsettling that, this election, the best Lady Liberty could do is crap out the stinkiest turd of a presidential choice the nation has ever known: Republocrat Georbert W. Bore.

SARAH ENGLAND/YH

Georbert W. Bore accepts the death penalty as a viable form of punishment, believing that state-sanctioned murder projects an image of moral authority and deters crime.

Georbert W. Bore supports corporate welfare, giant tax breaks and financial kickbacks to huge corporations who support and fund Mr. Bore and shape his agenda.

Georbert W. Bore pretends to be on the side of labor, though he doesn't seem to care that Americans, on average, are working longer hours for less relative pay than they were 30 years ago, despite the country's supposed economic boom.

Georbert W. Bore wishes to continue the foreign policy of William Jefferson Clinton, LAW '73, our current Grand Master Poobah of Democracy. He believes that devastating sanctions against Cuba and Iraq—which hurt the peasants and do nothing to the powerful—will serve as a catalyst for democracy. Mr. Bore has not and will never speak out against the 1999 terror campaign against Serbia, for he, like Mr. Clinton, believes that manipulative diplomacy and bombs are always better than fairness, understanding, and peace.

Georbert W. Bore is actually two people from two supposedly different political parties, though you would never know it by looking at the issues.

George W. Bush, DC '68, and Albert Gore are incompetent leaders, incapable of distinguishing themselves from each other on any significant issue. They talk until blue in the face about prescription drug plans, education reform, and tax cuts. But they will never bring up corporate accountability, labor concerns, or the myriad of issues concerning foreign policy. Why? Because they know in their hearts that they're both the same and that they don't want anything to change. And they are hoping that the American voter will never notice.

But there is a man who noticed, and he's trying to do something about it through the Green Party platform.

Many students I have talked to have little or no ideological qualms with this candidate. They much prefer him to Gore or Bush. The problem is that they are so repulsed by the prospect of a Bush presidency that they are afraid to aid his victory by not voting for Gore. In essence, they are being governed not by their conscience, but by their fear.

We as a people are afraid to vote for him. Outwardly we snicker at his idealistic pleas for shorter work hours, though we know that many American workers are driven into the ground by spending more time under the oppressive fluorescent glow of their office cubicle and away from the comfort of their home and family. We shrug off his claims that child rearing, once the sacred domain of the parent or guardian, has been hijacked by corporate pop culture, yet we know there is something wrong when Suzy gazes admiringly at the glowing MTV image of 'N Sync while ignoring her own father.

On the surface, we see him as an amusement, a fantasy of what might have been had our country gone a different way. He is a moral relic, espousing outdated causes like fixing the unbalanced distribution of wealth. He criticizes things most of us don't question, like our basic philosophies about defense and foreign intervention, about the rights of farmers and Native Americans, and about the bias and deceit of the American media. These criticisms are so big and yet so basic that they make us turn inward. They make us afraid.

But it's not only fear and cynicism keeping this candidate out of the running, it's calculated media censorship. The Commission on Presidential Debates, which determines who can appear in televised debates, is controlled by the Republican and Democratic parties. This political duopoly refuses to let a third candidate into the debates, despite polls showing that over 70 percent of Americans want him to take part. The Commission, as well as America's major networks, are ignoring the wishes of the American public and obstructing open political dialogue. Remember that fact when you hear Al Gore shout from his soap box about fighting for the American family or George Bush spouting some garbage about how he is on the side of integrity and truth. Remember that they have sided with the corporations and their public outlet, the media, to black out a candidate with whom they are afraid, and indeed unworthy, of standing side-by-side in an open, honest debate.

Americans deserve more than a choice between two vapid, identical corporate whores who try to win citizens' hearts with spin rather than with ideas and morality. The truth about America is far from what Clinton, Gore, Bush, or anyone else in power would have you believe, and this candidate knows it. He is smarter than Bush, more honest than Gore, and 10 times more worthy of the presidency than both of them combined. His name is Ralph Nader, and because of a public galvanized by lies, blinded by money, and governed by fear, he will not be the next President of the United States.

Back to Opinion...