Kentucky Greens

According to Gregg Jocoy, a South Carolinian, people in Kentucky can now, finally, register Green. Prior to Nov. 15, Kentucky didn't collect this kind of information from voters.

It's amazing what a struggle it is to simply allow for a variation of viewpoints in this country's political process. Change in political law (is that a redundancy?) that makes things fairer between the two major parties is hailed wildly as reform, even if it squelches third party ballot access. The Connecticut Campaign Finance bill passed recently, for example, was accompanied by much hoopla (particularly from the Democrats) because it made things cleaner for campaigning. Interestingly, it created two classes of parties: non-Democrats and non-Republicans have significantly steeper requirements in obtaining ballot access now than they used to. And it makes it tougher for them to get state help: for example, minor party primaries don't count—but major party primaries do. So this "reform", while an improvement in some areas, is even more unfair in others.

I find myself suspicious of the rhetoric of the Democratic party, because in practice, all across the country, this party actively works to reduce choice and to treat smaller parties, like the Greens, with the same viciousness and unfair treatment that they've seen from the Republicans. It's as though the point is to prevent the public from making its own choices, to make them ahead of time and then go through the rigamarole of voting to keep the public satisfied and calm and controllable.

Sort of like the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.