Drastically reduce the power of the central government over our lives.

It didn't used to be that critical who was president, except maybe in wartime. Now, we have assigned so much power to the Federal government that we are, for all intents and purposes, electing a king. Jerry Pournelle says it used to be more important who was mayor than who was president. Not so any more.

Now, will our "statesmen" reduce that power? Don't hold your breath.

Republicans, at least outside the House, seem to have largely forgotten Reagan's views of big government. Democrats have always loved big government and always will. Nationalized health care, anyone?

If you step WAY back, and look at the patterns, the thing I am seeing coming up is the influence of the "independent" candidate, or the third party. It may be that a party that rejects both major parties will begin to call the shots.

Don't forget that most of the presidential elections in recent times have had their outcomes influenced by third party candidates. I see this happening in the future, too. I could easily see people like Lieberman or McCain saying "screw the Democrats AND the Republicans," and taking a lot of people with them. Something like this happened in Israel recently, too. Look at which party is running things now.

I would lay at least even odds that in thirty years, the main political parties in the U.S. are not going to be the ones running things now. And sorry, but the Greens and Libertarians still aren't going to be in the game.