How PUBLIC can you get in a BBS???? C'mon!

Thank god the Zone is an imperfect mirror of the outside world. I'm glad we can still let our hair down even a little to talk about these things. We couldn't get even this far most places out there.

Of course NOBODY except a ideological hero worshiper agrees 100% with any candidate.

You're right. So how come you keep throwing "Kerry & Kennedy" in our faces at every turn? Kennedy's a dinosaur we tolerate out of nostalgia for the family. Kerry's an empty suit who ran one of the lamest campaigns ever seen and pretty much betrayed us nominal Democrats. Trying to portray those two as Democratic standard bearers is pretty lame, and amounts to attempted use of straw men. They don't represent me, and I really don't think they represent too many other people.

That's a problem we all face. The political parties and party bosses have too much power to ram their "tactical" choices down our throats--the candidate they think will win rather than the candidate we want. The RNC sabotaged McCain in 2000 (I voted for him in California's only open primary), the DNC rigged the primary outcome for Kerry in 2004.

Can we agree on one thing?: America would be better off if we could break the grip on political power of the two major parties. I'm very confident that what would arise to replace those two machines would represent very different ideological lines and concerns. Neither party accurately represents America any more, and haven't for a long time. Each party exists for the sole purpose of gaining and grasping power, and cynically adjust their "principles" to maximize votes.