Beloved Before Time is entering the political fray!

As if there weren't enough politically-minded weblogs already, I have now decided to enter the game. (Well, it may only be one post.) But the real impact comes not in my crappy blog, but in last night's unformal commencement of . . .

THE FED PARTY!

As a collective of seven keen-minded twenty-somethings, we are FED UP! (We figure being called the "Fed Up" Party wouldn't give us as much cred'.) We hereby propose two initial changes:

Repeal/reduce property taxes. Joe and Janet Yankee have lived in their modest two-story home for forty-one years, having finished mortgage payments eleven years ago. According to their deed and the bank, their home is paid off and is theirs. But should they miss a few property tax payments, the government is now the proud owner of the Yankee homestead. Wait a sec, didnt' I already finish paying for my house? Apparently no one can actually own anything in America. I mean, the reason I can't pay my property taxes is because Social Security ran out! Granted, it is a good thing to have the mortgage and property tax allowances on ye olde 1040, but something's amiss here. We are somewhat agreed upon seeking the offsetting revenue in luxury taxes or an increase in income tax. (Don't get me started on eminent domain.)

Establish runoff balloting. No, this does not mean that we steal all the ballots, run off with them, and cast all the votes in our favor. Runoff balloting has been promoted by those sometimes-genius folk in the Green Party as a way to give a third (or other) party greater clout. Although varying formats have been proposed, here's the gist: Voters are allowed to cast votes for not only one, but two or more candidates (perhaps rank-ordering them), and the winner is declared on the basis of greatest overall approval by the voting public.

Given the artifically and unnecessarily polarized platforms of the current incarnations of the Democratic and Republican Parties, let's say 50% of the public votes Democratic but, loathing the Republicans, votes for the Green Party candidate as a second choice. The other 50% votes Republican and hates the Democrats, so they also vote Green with their second choice. The result: the Green Party gains the highest overall approval, landing its candidate in the Oval Office. The Asses and Elephants can no longer target select voter groups like the Religious Wrong, but must consider what would gain the widest approval by all voter groups.

Let's face it: the Democrats and the Republicans are both off their respective rockers right now: no honest person considering all sides of any given issue can be as bigoted and polarized as either party. While I sit around vainly wishing for Lieberman-McCain duel in '08, I know that's not going to happen (heaven forbid that progressive moderates would actually be selected by their parties!). Is anyone else FED Up?