"Change". That is the big keyword of this years presidential election. Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, everyone can agree that things in this country aren't going well. Most have listened to the great orator Barack Obama and have been inspired enough to get up and vote in the Democratic Primaries to vote for "Change". Change that they see in him. Not only because he is a great speaker, but I think mostly because he doesn't seem to be a lifelong politician. People are sick of politicians and when you bring them up in conversation, the subject leaves a dirty taste in peoples mouths.

But, when elected to the Oval Office (and unless there is further funny business with our election process, I believe he will be) how much change can he actually bring to our country? Change that the average citizen can feel in their everyday lives? He is, in fact, part of the two major political parties here in the US that are equally funded by all of the huge multi-national corporations. The same multi-national corporations that have made billions of dollars off of war and destruction, and have fought for years to end labor unions and keep wages down here in the US by exploiting illegal immigrants, or just flat-out moving their operations off-shore where they can pay pennies a day to third world workforces.

I have a lot of respect for Barack Obama for not accepting special interest money to fund his campaign up to this point, but once he wins the nomination, that special interest money will flood the bank accounts of the Democratic National Committee.

On the other hand there is the Republican nominee John McCain, who will add four more years of failed Republican policies. Unless there is mass election fraud committed by the corporations who count our votes, we can pretty much forget about him. Grampa McCain thinks all of our countries problems can be fixed with more tax-cuts for the rich and a hundred more years in Iraq!

Both of the Democratic front-runners promise to bring our troops home or redistribute them to other parts of the world (redeployment), but do they mean it? I attended the rally and march against the illegal occupation of Iraq (going on it's fifth year) and I didn't see one banner or booth from the DNC. Plenty of Democratic members, but no endorsement by the leadership. How can they say they want the occupation to end, but are no-shows when it comes to grassroots protest? How can they promise an end to the mess in the Iraq, but continue to accept money from the same multi-national corporations who have made billions of dollars off of it?

While marching with the antiwar protesters on Saturday, I did see one political party who with banners and a booth at the rally, was proud to take a stand for Peace and true "Change" through grassroots action. "The Peace Party" is one of their nicknames. The only party who actually practices what it preaches is not one of the major two parties at all. It's the Green Party.

Now, I realize the corporate media has done a great disservice to our electoral process by blaming what happened in 2000 on Ralph Nader and the Green Party, instead of focusing on the fact that Bush was put into office by the Supreme Court, but the Green Party leadership has been working hard for decades to push forward actual change that benefits not only the average citizen, but the world that we call home. Here in New Mexico we now have paper ballots in our elections due mostly to the hard work by Green Party members!

I know that we are a more than a few presidential elections away from electing a Green Party president of the United States, but if everyone took the time to actually read the Green Party platform ( [link] ) you would see that they stand for everything that Americans are rushing to the polls to vote for in Barack Obama.

I'm not saying telling everyone to vote for the Green Party presidential nominee this year, but what kind of point would we be making to the current system if everyone who actually wanted "change" went out and CHANGED their voting registration to GREEN? Or elected Green Party candidates to local offices? Think we would get their attention? You must remember that only 3% of the population of the colonies participated in the Revolutionary War of 1776, and that they too wanted change. They like us, no longer wanted to be part of the empire. The founders of this country wanted a government that was run by the people, not by the multi-national corporation of the time the "East India Tea Company".

My question for my fellow Americans is: Who's coming with me?

Please visit [link] for more information about electing local Green Party members to city, county and state offices.

-Thomas P.
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