2003-10-15 - 10:07 p.m.

Baseball and Politics

I've been spending a lot of my time split between the two lately. But I'm surprised the following analogy never occurred to me before:

If you like the underdogs, like the Cubs or Red Sox (or even the Marlins), why do you consistently vote Democrat or Republican?

Baseball has more than two teams, but it does have a class structure. There are big markets, like New York and Los Angeles, and then there are small markets like Florida and Oakland. Smaller teams have less money, thus younger players. Having experience is a huge factor in winning championships.

And yet tons of sports fans are loyal to teams that consistently loose. Why?

And worse yet, these same people will ignore smaller third parties, when the candidates from these parties probably better represent their ideals.

The government isn't going to collapse is a Green Party candidate for governor wins. Smaller parties have and will look for experienced advice without putting on partisan glasses. So why will a Cubs fan only vote for the winning team?

Because as a Democrat you fear the Republicans? I've got news for you, in most of the United States, Democrats are guilty of the same dirty tricks as Republicans. They are stupid parties that rarely generate candidates that actually believe in a party platform.

If you don't believe me, what is your state's Republican platform? What is your state's Democratic platform? The reason I bring this up, is that the Green Party actually has a national and local platform. At the national level there are 10 key values. Amazingly, most everything a Green candidate does ties into several of these. And it creates a pretty consistent set of values to base any policy judgment.

I hope that San Franciscan Mayoral candidate, Matt Gonzalez, wins in the November election. I don't live in San Francisco. Obviously I can't vote for him. But in my mind to have a Green Party endorsement means that a person is accountable to the party values and not some developer or other private interest.

Now only if I can get fans of loser baseball teams to vote third party.

n.p. hexedene :: bullet proof diva's

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