Times, Are they Really Going To Change?...

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

2012 really does present an opportunity for change. Real change as in changing the current of American political direction and ideology that has essentially remained stuck in midstream for years.

For sure the feeble arguments for change from either side of the same political continuum has resulted in gentle movement to either one side or the other of the central current. However, as the country has flip flopped from republican to democrat back to republican back to democrat... etc. the force in American politics continues moving in the same general destructive direction. Which brings me to the point of this post and my ensuing arguments for hooking on to the opportunity for real, significant, and fundamental change.

The Associated Press ran an article this morning based on a Associated Press-KfG poll showing 1 in 4 potential voters remain uncommitted as to who they may ultimately cast their presidential vote for in November 2012.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They shrug at President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. They're in no hurry to decide which one to support in the White House race. And they'll have a big say in determining who wins the White House.

One-quarter of U.S. voters are persuadable, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll, and both Obama and Romney will spend the next four months trying to convince these fickle, hard-to-reach individuals that only he has what it takes to fix an ailing nation.

It's a delicate task. These voters also hate pandering.

"I don't believe in nothing they say," says Carol Barber of Iceland, Ky., among the 27 percent of the electorate that hasn't determined whom to back or that doesn't have a strong preference about a candidate.

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John Robinson, a 49-year-old general contractor from Santa Cruz, Calif., is paying a bit more attention, but is just as turned off by both candidates.

"I'm just bitter about everybody. They just keep talking and wavering," said Robinson, a conservative who backed the GOP nominee in 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain, but is undecided between Obama and Romney. "There's nothing I can really say that's appealing about either one of them."

To be sure, many of the 1-in-4 voters who today say they are uncommitted will settle on a candidate by Election Day, Nov. 6.

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Overall, the poll found that among registered voters, 47 percent say they will vote for the president and 44 percent for Romney, a difference that is not statistically significant.

Those totals include soft support, though, meaning people who lean toward a candidate as well as those who said they could change their minds before November. The poll showed that these persuadable voters are equally apt to lean toward Obama, Romney, or neither, with about one-third of them in each camp.

The survey also showed that these voters are more likely than others to say they distrust both Romney and Obama on the major issues. They are far more likely to think the outcome of the election won't make a big difference on the economy, unemployment, the federal budget deficit or health care.

Party politics and wedge issues have dubious weight with this group. The poll found more independents fall into this category than partisans.Party politics and wedge issues have dubious weight with this group. The poll found more independents fall into this category than partisans. The partisans who are persuadable are more likely to be in the ideological middle than either liberal Democrats or conservative Republicans. Seventeen percent of persuadables say they consider themselves supporters of the tea party.

These uncommitted are individuals that know the country is on the wrong path. They sense the futility of voting for either Obama or Romney, realizing that a vote for either is a vote for the status quo. So what to so?

The issue is often framed as boiling down to a choice between "the lesser of two evils", with either choice essentially leading to the same ends. And, in reality that is precisely what has driven the country to it's present moorings. Selecting "the lesser of two evils."

There is a viable and positive alternative in the 2012 presidential election to deciding on "the lesser of two evils." The third (and rational) choice is to vote for a third party candidate that actually has an agenda for meaningful and positive change in the direction of national politics and governance.

The 25% of Americans who know that the current, as well as past direction has been a disaster have the power to change America. For the better. If this 25% of uncommitted and unenthusiastic voters were to combine with Ron Paul supporters and cast their ballots the candidate of real change big things could, and likely would happen. That candidate folks is Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate for President of the United States.

So, the only question really is this. Will this group of uncommitted combine with the Ron Paul supporters and vote for real change? Or will they decide to vote for one of "the lesser of two evils", thus insuring the continuation of the status quo?

America's future hangs in the balance.

Via: Memeorandum