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Doublereed Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 2004/05

From: Nat Echols <echols@-----.edu>
Subj: [DR-L] offtopic: Re: [DR-L] Quote of the Day
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 22:25:45 -0400

> "If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; i=
f
> you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vot=
e for
> the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and =
party
> are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era,=E2=80=94=
then you
> yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a =
quaint
> product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem."

I'll give Chapman the benefit of the doubt since he was writing more than
100 years ago, but I'm not sure this applies at all to our current
situation. People vote for the large national parties because the large
national parties usually stand for things they approve of. My experience
has been that people who describe themselves as independents - I include
myself in this - do so because they are centrists, not because they think
both parties are the same.

(And every candidate claims to stand for a new era. Anyone remember "a
uniter, not a divider?" Or just take a look at California. . . the
outsider message won big. Whether this was good or bad for the state will
be known in a few years, by which time I hope I'll still have a university
to attend.)

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