None Of The Above - An Alt-Experience Presentation

An Alt-Experience Presentation

None Of The Above

By Stone Bryson

“Election 2008” is now in full swing... and we are once again served up a boatload of incompetent candidates whose primary talents seem to be their ability to turn lies into truth. They also seem to excel at convincing us that the other guy or gal will serve our children on a spit - with tasty barbeque sauce - to hungry demons, but that is about the extent of their abilities. The truth of the matter is - with very few exceptions - they are all opportunists who do not give a rat's ass about you, or this nation of ours.

And I mean all of them, from both parties.

I should warn you upfront that I have an very different outlook on politics; I consider myself a true political atheist. I do not believe in either party, or in any of either party's High Priests/Priestesses (i.e. leaders). They all have their agendas, and will use whatever methods (or, if you prefer, lies) to push said-agendas and get re-elected. Quite simply put, I do not trust them at all. This is not based on cynicism, folks - this is based on experience.

This is one of the reasons why I seldom discuss politics in blogs or open forums, and when I do it is in a satirical fashion. But it goes beyond that - most of the time all the discussion does is bring about bad feelings or animosity, and I think we already have quite enough of that in the world. There are a few close friends I will discuss specific issues with, but there is never any negativity in the discussion. We talk, we agree on some things and disagree on others, and at the end of the night it is all good.

I'll note here that I have discussed politics on-line in the past, especially here on Alt-Experience. The problem I had - and why I initially quit having such discussions - was that I could not keep up with the shifting tides that rule political thinking. Maybe I am just not smart enough - or devious enough - to follow the machinations in D.C. but the whole thing left me cold. Besides, such ranting does nothing to facilitate any change, and let's be real - why would anyone in the world care what I think? Therefore I decided to let it go (sticking with what I know, poetry), allowing those who are more intelligent than I to hammer out the specifics. I know what I believe, what I think, and that is good enough for me.

With all of this noted, we still feel compelled to head into the booth every election cycle. There are usually important ballot-initiatives that I want to vote on, and occasionally a couple of local judges I want to support. However, when it came to the major candidates I always end up hoping for a 'none of the above' option. They are all so slimy, so untrustworthy, that I was having a hard time voting for them. Jerry Garcia once said that if you vote for the lesser of two evils you are still voting for evil, and he was right. Well, let me be completely honest with you - I am sick of voting for 'evil.'

So maybe if we all push hard enough at local levels we can get a 'none of the above' option included on our ballots for future voting cycles. That way, when the tallies are registered at the end of the day and it is discovered that 90% of a populace voted - with 'none of the above' winning by a landslide - the powers-that-be may finally get the message.

"We do not like you... we do not trust you... we do not want you in office. It is time for a change.".

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