Democrats and Republicans, at least at one point in history, must have gotten something right.

That’s hard to fathom in a world where a red tape-hungry Congress is stuck in a stalemate alongside an executive branch that has expanded its own power, but lacks the competence to achieve what Lincoln and the Roosevelts achieved. -By no means meant to cast a liberal bias; those were the examples that came to mind, and that’s fitting since most conservatives achieve success by going the downsizing route.

But look at the letters affixed to the names of all but a handful of current U.S. Congressmen: D, R, R, D, R, D, D, D, R… It’s like being in an airport with no food on you. You’re a captive audience. Airports can jack up the prices all they want because they know you don’t have any other options, and they know you know that. Democrats and Republicans can refer to themselves as “the two major political parties,” and monopolize mass media, because they know they can stifle the independent voice, and they know we know it. There may have been some truth to Barack Obama’s detached comments about blue-collar voters, after all.

As a supporter of Bob Barr, but also as an objective spectator, I now name multiple third-party candidates. These candidates will not appear on every ballot. They will fly under the radar for the next ninety days. Barack Obama and John McCain will likely spend the equivalent of their entire campaign funds on champagne and noisemakers to celebrate victory. These men and women will not be the 44th President of the United States of America:

• Bob Barr, Libertarian Party
• Cynthia McKinney, Green Party
• Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party
• Alan Keyes, American Independent Party
• Brian Moore, Socialist Party
• Gloria La Riva, Party for Socialism and Liberation

With some of these candidates, it’s probably a good thing that they won’t be seeing the Oval Office any time soon. But that’s not what I’m getting at. There are some competent leaders and powerful voices in that list. I know very few people who will be voting for Obama, whose views wouldn’t be better described by McKinney or Moore. My conservative friends still heart Huckabee, and would probably say that Dr. Baldwin is fit to lead us. But a vote for them would just be throwing your vote away, right? Why not make your vote matter, and put it to someone who can win?

Why can’t these guys win? Name recognition. Why can’t their names be recognized? Money.

Hey there, guys.

I barely remember when Joe Biden and Chris Dodd were running, and yet they managed to raise several times the funds of Bob Barr and Ralph Nader, who haven’t stopped campaigning, before it became obvious they had no chance in, oh, say, the first primary. Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and Barack Obama raised over $100 million each, just to be competitive. Man, if I had $100 million, I would… not be in politics, that’s for damn sure. There are a number of requirements in the Constitution for presidential election, but there are two that aren’t written in stone: you have to be filthy rich, and you have to have connections in high places.

I don’t buy the argument that money is a form of free speech, and that by denying hard or soft contributions to campaigns, you are silencing millions of Americans. I’m as much for a laissez-faire free market as the next idealistic voter who has faith in humanity’s ability to make competent decisions and direct their own lives, but political offices aren’t up for sale. It’s okay to break up companies that hold a monopoly over a product or service because they did it better than everyone else, but are now taking advantage of consumers. Why not break up the monopoly held by political parties who, once upon a time, had a vision, but are now taking advantage of voters?

It’s damn hard for a third party to get 5% of the vote in today’s media-saturated culture, much less ever actually win electors. Democrats and Republicans aren’t going to change that, but was the nation founded to be a political war between two parties, one left-centrist and one right-centrist? What was it George Washington said about political parties? I don’t remember the exact words, but he wasn’t a big fan. So, keep that in mind you independents and swing-voters. Obama isn’t pleasing some of the far-left. McCain is flat-out pissing off some of the far-right. A lot of people are trying to figure out who’s the lesser of two evils. I think you should just “throw your vote away” to Baldwin, McKinney, Nader, or- as much as it pains me to suggest it- La Riva.

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