A quick thought about presidents…

So I’m sitting here watching the returns from the Puerto Rico Democratic primary, just like I was watching the DNC rules committee yesterday decide what to do about Michigan and Florida. Now, I realize that if you go by the rules and the numbers, that it is more or less impossible for Hillary Clinton to get the nomination. However, her supporters it seems will stop at nothing, including a floor fight at the convention, to get it for her, and she all but outright encourages their despicable and divisive behavior. Just watch the DNC rules committee proceedings from yesterday; it’s disgusting. But that’s not what this entry is about, I just find it necessary to indict them for their behavior before I get to the point.

The point? Let’s just play with the unlikely hypothetical that Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination and it doesn’t destroy the party such that McCain wins. Right now, either Democratic candidate leads McCain in the polls, so maybe it’s not a total long shot there. So let’s just say for the moment that Hillary Clinton becomes president. That would make the presidents in my lifetime go as follows:

Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Bush, Clinton

That hardly seems like democracy to me. That seems more like an oligarchy where the seat of power remains in the hands of a very select few. There’s not even an illusion of a difference by having a relative of one president with a different last name in office later. It would take some serious thought on my part about who I would vote for if Clinton were to get the nomination.

In 2000, I liked McCain. But the 2000 Republican primaries and a subsequent 8 years of ingratiating himself to the people who I would credit with the destruction of the Republican Party that I grew up with has turned him into a candidate that I could not support in good conscience. Likewise, I do not think that I could support Clinton in good conscience, not only because it would lend to a furthering of what I perceive as a budding American monarchy in everything but name, but because I feel that she has no scruples and would bring no more honor to the U.S, government than is already there (that is to say, none). In short, it comes down to a lot more than policies and political positions.

The American political system almost trains us that a write-in vote or a vote for a third party is tantamount to wasting one’s vote. In the sense that it is highly unlikely that your candidate will be elected under these circumstances, that may be true, as it is in the sense that it could open the door for the greater of two evils to prevail, I’m kind of sick of having to choose the lesser of two evils when voting for president, and given the nature of this year’s election, I may be forced to, for the first time, vote my conscience rather than vote a calculated political strategy. Hell, I might even jump on board with the Ron Paul kids. Or not…