The American voter is a gullible idealist

30 October 2012

By Colman McCarthy
National Catholic Reporter

"The public is necessarily uninformed about the issues. The ideas of Libertarian, Green, Socialist, Communist and Constitution Party candidates remain largely unknown, either because of exclusionary rules set by the Federal Election Commission to keep them out of the debates or media insistence that it’s a two-person race between a Democrat and Republican. Citizens who do trouble themselves to analyze the policy differences between the Socialist Stewart Alexander, the Libertarian Gary Johnson, the Green’s Jill Stein and the Constitution Party’s Virgil Goode find themselves cornered: be a principled third-party voter for a candidate who is a sure loser or be unprincipled and choose the lesser evil, Obama and Romney.

To fantasize for a moment, would the country be bankrupt by paying for two unwinnable and unaffordable wars if it had had Libertarian, Socialist or Green presidents these past decades? Would the power of money-driven lobbyists be as strong? Would social programs be underfunded? Would larcenous banks have had their way? Would unemployment, student debt and foreclosure rates be as high as they are?...."

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