The dangerous myth that our two-party system gives us a choice

it hasn't been true for the majority of my lifetime (now going on 63 years) even though i spent an unfortunate amount of time believing that it does... not any more...

once again, glenn says it best...

[I]t should be apparent to any rational observer that confining oneself to the two-party system -- meaning devoting oneself loyally to one of the two parties' establishments without regard to what it does -- is a ticket to inevitable irrelevance. The same factions rule Washington no matter which of the two parties control the various branches of government (see this excellent new article from Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson on the Obama administration's role in the BP oil spill, and specifically how virtually nothing changed in the oil-industry-controlled Interior Department once Ken Salazar took over [as was quite predictable and predicted]; Interior employees even refer to it as "the third Bush term"). There is clearly a need for new strategies and approaches that involve things other than unconditional fealty to the Democratic Party, which weigh not only the short-term political fears that are exploited to keep Democrats blindly loyal (hey, look over there! It's Sarah Palin!) but also longer-term considerations (the need to truly change the political process and the stranglehold the two parties exert).

i must admit that i was reluctantly won over to obama's campaign, a victim of my own belief that hope in the words that were coming out of obama's mouth was better than the despair that washed over me if i were to succumb to my darkest fears that mccain and obama were merely two sides of the same coin... it wasn't more than two months into obama's term of office that i realized that i, like so many other, had been had... i certainly won't say it couldn't happen to me again... after all, how am i - how are WE - to know what's really in someone's heart...? but i can say this... my cynicism and distrust of those in authority has deepened to an appalling extent...

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