3rd swing

I was discussing the upcoming election with my roommate and the issue of "a vote for nader is a vote for bush came up." He, being a Minnesotan, was first afraid of the Jessie V. effect, that enough people would vote for a "novelty" canidate and he'd actually get elected. While not out of the realm of possibliities, this situation is far from probable especially considering the fallout that is associated with Nader's involvement in the last election. Now, while nader's politics are completely weird as far as I'm concerned, the issue really is not his politics, but the possiblity of a legitimate third party ascending to power in this country. While I'm not the first to suggest such a party (K_raus what the address of that guy who writes the decemberist?) a socially inclusive, fiscally conservative party would be real refreshing to my eyes. That much said, a swinging thrid party endorsement could be an extremely powerful tool - consider the nader issue in the last election, people voted novelty and it's likely that the Republican won the election as a result, conversly if a legitimate third party were to put backing behind a canidate (assuming concessions were made to that party) in an election year like this it could mean the election. I'm not sure that this is a better way to run the government (three parties), but it's an intriguing hypothetical lense to view the current election through as John Kerry starts to ouline his intended policies and GW Bush defends his decisions and direction.

politics.

-Erasmus