Kucinich

I've made up my mind to support Kucinich in the US Presidential election. I don't like any of the Republican candidates enough to think I'd vote for any of them. I don't like Hillary Clinton even though she's better than the current President by several orders of magnitude, because I believe she's still part of the old guard corrupt system, the same with John Edwards. I've been on the fence with Barak Obama, holding out some hope, but I just have never been able to be sure he wasn't just the same stuff in a new package. Kucinich though, well, I agree with most of his policy decisions, and if I had to pick one presidential candidate to trust with my life, it's him. It's easy to be convinced that he is not part of the same old corrupt political machine. This is a smart, caring and determined man.

I wish the Federal elections had Rank Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff). Most people, at least in San Francisco, think that it's just about saving money by not requiring a second runoff poll day in close elections, but to me it is really about eliminating the "go ahead, throw your vote away" mentality where people prefer a candidate, like say Nader, but feel they can't vote for him because not voting for Gore might let Bush win. Rank Choice Voting allows you to vote first for the candidate you really support, then second for the lesser-of-two-evil candidates you feel you must support. For example, if 25% of Americans voted Nader first and Gore second, 40% voted Gore first and 35% Bush first, Gore would still win with 65% of the vote, since in the end the Nader first votes would get converted to Gore votes. However, the political landscape would change because Nader would be known to have the support of 25% of the population.

I can use the primaries to achieve the same thing in a way. I've decided to throw my support behind Kucinich for the primary, even though I know I'll probably end up voting for either Obama or Clinton in November 2008. I'm going to contribute double what I've already contributed to Obama, and look into volunteering for campaign support as well.