Editor, Times-Union: How do you like a one party system, tax slaves? When I was running for Congress in California in 1980 I noticed a map on the wall of the Democrat county headquarters. The map had all the various districts for the various political races. They had identifying colors for Republican and Democrat. It was explained to me that wherever you saw a district that had more people that were registered in one party than another party, the one with far less registration numbers was written off by the minority party. Which meant they would spend almost no money helping a candidate who is running in that district. They would only give the campaign lip service. So one after one each district usually ended up with a one-party system similar to the old Soviet Union. So we have red and blue states in which the national parties decide whether to spend much money in backing a candidate or not. For example, the whole state of Indiana, except for some areas around the big cities, is a one-party system. In this case, Republican. So the national democratic party will spend far less in Indiana than in most other states. The two parties always conspire to deny minor parties from even getting on the ballot. They also conspire to keep them out of any major debates. Next comes another odd creation called the electoral college. It was not created by the founding fathers but by the states to act as a block to the people from rising up as populists to make change. Al Gore found out the hard way the way that works. Romney is very likely to fall victim to it this round. The federal courts are used, of course, as the ultimate protection of the state, not you. Millions of people may vote in referendum on an issue that it takes only one federal judge to kill their desires. Just remember if voting would change things, they’d make it illegal. Tom Metzger Warsaw, via e-mail
