55-U.S. Election

Someone once said that Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others & that is certainly the case for the United States. No matter how dishonest & incompetent the last government was you can always kick the bums out every two or four years.
The US has a very 'undemocratic' winner-take-all system with only two main parties. The Republicans controlled Congress from 1994-2006 & the White House/Executive Branch the last 20 of 28 years. The last Republican President with any real integrity was Eisenhower of 50 years ago when he warned of the growing military complex(that was when the 'Defense'(War dept.) budget was 40 billion..now it is 600 BILLION!). The beloved Ronald Reagan of the 1980's took the solar panels off the White House & cut funding for alternative energy by 80%, cut taxes for the rich, & invaded Grenada when his poll numbers were down. The latest Republican Bush Jr./Cheney administration is considered by most scholars as the most incompetent in modern history. Their economic & foreign policies have been a disaster for the US & the World. The unprovoked invasion & occupation of Iraq has left 2 million refugee's, ten's of thousands dead & wounded, & cost over one TRILLION dollars. The 'deregulation' of Wall Street culminated in Bush Jr's Treasury Secretary getting on his knee's to Congress & asking for a 700 BILLION bailout for his former corporate cronies. Probably the biggest failure has been the inaction of the Republicans on Climate Change Initiatives. The US is the ONLY nation not to sign the 'first step' of the Kyoto Treaty & when the Repubs were in control of Congress refused to raise fuel standards on corporations or even hold hearings on Global Warming. Anyone who loves children & votes Republican is voting against a sustainable future for children as the Republicans have always put corporate profits over science in delaying action on Climate Change.
The Democrats are a 'Wall Street' Party too but there is an ongoing struggle over the direction of the Party. Progressives like Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio voted against the Wall Street bailout & tried to impeach Bush Jr. for his numerous constitutional crimes. Sen. Obama is being painted as the 'most liberal'(as if being liberal is a bad thing!)in the Senate by the right-wing corporate media but that is hardly the case. Obama is not talking about campaign finance reform, or cutting the obese military budget(he wants to increase parts of it!) or having universal health care for all like most democracies have. However, he is progressive on many issues & his intelligence would be very welcome by the World which needs leadership on numerous challenging issues facing the Planet.
There is a big debate in the progressive community(politics are either 'regressive' like Republican tax breaks for oil companies or 'progressive' like funding alternative energy) over voting for the Dems, Greens, or for Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader was the Green candidate in 2004 & has spent his life fighting against corporate power but his policies are practically identical to the 2008 Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.(a progressive African American former Democrat Congresswoman) The Greens are one of the fastest growing political parties in the World & their idea's(Ten Key Values) are vitally important as the Planet faces an ecological & financial meltdown.
Another candidate for President is Libertarian Bob Barr. If the Libertarians & Greens were in power at least there would be no 'War on Drugs' with tens of thousands of non-violent marijuana smokers in jail! However, the Lib's are anti-regulation/government & the environmental problems are too great & corporations too powerful to trust the 'free market' to do good.
It appears many Americans(although overworked & uninformed) are 'waking up'(or at least fed up!) politically to the economic 'trickle on' mostly Republican policies of the past eight(or 28) years...'Red' States such as Colorado,Virgina,North Carolina,Ohio,Florida, Nevada & others may help elect a Democratic Senator from Illinois(Obama) to the 'White' House. How much change Obama will make remains to be seen but his intelligence will be greatly appreciated by the rest of the Planet.
I encourage my 'blue state' friends to consider voting Green & my conservative 'Red' state friends to consider voting Democrat or Libertarian. The Republicans do not deserve anyone's vote this year.

(check out my Sept 04 'Global Bad News/Good News' too)