Is everyone ready for the election scandal of 2004? I sure am. I can't wait for the ballots to disappear, the polling places to move, the allegations of voter fraud, and the recounts. Our country is already seen as a bunch of incompetent trigger happy buffoons. The upcoming election is only going to make it worse. If we can't hold fair elections in this county, how can we ever hope to impose a stable democracy on other countries. How can our democracy ever be considered legitimate, when the person who wins the popular vote doesn't win the election? When some voters count more than others (for example, in Wyoming they have about 70,000 people to each electoral college vote, while California has over 200,000 people for each electoral college vote)? When candidates will only campaign in swing states, because they are the only states that matter? We must update our democracy for the 21st century. The electoral college was setup in a time when people were too ill informed to make their own choices. Are we still ill informed? Maybe we are. Television commercials are the basis of our political decisions and the debates are little more than alternating speeches. The candidates must pander to the corporations that donate the most money and refuse to take a stance on issues that might disenfranchise voters in their key constituencies. Political parties limit the issues to simple black and white sound bites. Candidates are pigeonholed into the ideals of the party. The country is more polarized than ever. Forced to chose between the extremes. Making choices based on what candidates say rather than what they do.

I would support Bush on economic issues, if I made a decision solely based on what he says. I agree with his policy of lowering taxes to help small businesses create jobs and grow the economy. However, I will never support Bush, because he does not do what he says. He has given enormous tax breaks, corporate welfare and no bid contracts to the largest companies in the country. This works against small businesses and the average citizen, because it stifles the economy and rewards large companies for shipping jobs overseas. The result is the largest deficit in history. I will be paying off his mistakes for the rest of my life.