The other day in school a classmate told me about a Green Party rally at school with the Green Party candidate for California Governor.  I couldn't attend the rally even though I did want to because of work.  Afterwards he told me that it had been a great success and that around 50 people had attended.  I thought to myself how it was a little sad that 50 people equaled a success.  Earlier this year I attended a Democratic party and that easily had over 300 people there, and I think that was considered a small gathering.  What I don't get is why more of us don't jump off the Democratic and Republican bandwagons.  Really, both parties do not represent the majority of anything.  Nor can they really help protect the minorities that are so often hurt in a majority rule government.

As I write this, we are nearly a week away from the midterm elections for the House and Senate.  It's likely that the Democrats will win quite a few seats in both.  Whether they will regain a majority in either remains to be seen.  While the Democrats winning a majority in the Senate would help sway some of the power away from this runaway president, it will not be enough to address the major issues we now face, such as: the war in Iraq, our continued safety, our dependence on oil; our outstanding debt to countries like China, the continued erosion of our rights, and our standing in the world stage (among a dozen other issues).

This country needs new leadership and fast.  Voting democratic is a short-term solution to sweep out the Bush backers.  But in the long-run, there needs to be a fundamental change in the way we are represented.  The voices of the people are so often ignored because so may of us are apathetic with the political process.  It becomes a horrible cycle of facing an uphill battle with the political process, which in turn creates apathy.  The sad thing is that leaders don't lead anymore, they follow.  They most often follow the money and the interests of corporations.  There is a great speech in the movie "Network" about how in the future there will be no countries, no borders, just corporations.  The corporations will be the new states of the world.  It would seem that we're more than half way to that becoming true right now.

I think that the only thing that will break this two party system is a great leader.  It won't be easy because the Democrats and the Republicans would pour a lot of money into a fight against anyone that threatens their mutual hold on the political process in this country.  It is in their mutual interest to keep a third party from emerging to the forefront of American politics.