four season cycling

Today is a primary voting day in Minnesota. I always vote. State officials are expecting an extremely low voter turn out today. In my precinct there were only three races to vote on. One state race, one county race, and a local judiciary race.

A few words on politics. Skip this if you don’t wish to read some political views. It’s VERY rare I ever voice my opinions. I’ve learned my views are exceptionally rare and very unlikely to be taken serious in most conversations. But with this years race my views may carry more gravity.

Time warp back to 1984. I was in college. I did some volunteer work for a presidential campaign. One of the major parties. It must have been a bad experience. Or my college studies may have awakened something in me. I can’t even remember what was going on or what happened. But I made two decisions back then I felt I had to make. They may or may not have been related. 1) I vowed never to vote for a Republican or Democrat in a major national election. 2) I vowed never to step foot in a Walmart. I have kept both of those vows with one exception. I did go into a Walmart once while on the Appalachian Trail in 2001. I think we bought Vitamin I for some physical pain I was having.

My major issue with the two main parties is with who they represent, not you or I. The ginormous spending on a military offense department. And the aggressive means the parties use to limit any other voices in the conversation. They work together to do this.

Both parties represent the moneyed interests, the people and businesses with money and Wall Street. They both appoint Wall Street insiders to run the Treasury department and the Federal Reserve. They both use our Department of Offense to defend the interest of the people with  money around the world. They both govern through conflict rather than compromise.

That’s in a nutshell.

When another voice rises it usually comes from a fringe party. These fringe parties are usually the alternative choices to the two major parties. I would like to see a third party with a moderate platform. A candidate that can bring every one together. I don’t see that with any party. No one will work with the Republican candidate. Republicans won’t work with the Democratic candidate, and the third party candidates would have an incredibly huge hill to climb to get anyone to work with them with their radical platforms.

What’s the solution? Hell if I know. But I haven’t seen it yet.

Oh, I’m on a personal boycott of the media now through the November elections. I’ve turned it all off. I deleted “news” sites on my phone. I listen mostly to podcasts these days. I was increasingly annoyed by the coverage….or lack thereof. The media isn’t asking the hard questions or holding the candidates accountable for what they say. It’s quite sickening to be honest. And a waste of my time.

Think hard about what your vote says. Don’t believe there are only two choices. There are many choices.