Because I Said So…

Americans are constantly being told what they do, think and feel believe.  Last night I think someone told me on CNN that my gender and race all but render me helpless if I am a Democrat and have to choose between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Pundits, scientists, commentators and busy-bodies have been polling and guessing (wrongly) how we are voting in this country since election season began.  I thought it was time to speak to the one type of person whom no one seems to be asking about the presidential race: a voter!

Kwame Thomison is a recent Cornell University graduate.  He earned a B.A. in Information Science with a concentration in law.  He also has no affiliation with any particular party, like, apparently, around one-third of the country is–at least, that’s what the pundits told me.

 Check out the audio from the interview, below.  We talk about his take on the impact of third-party and independent presidential candidates this year and how student governments in colleges mimic the democratic electoral process we hold so dear in America.

http://becauseisaidsoonline.net/audio/Constituencyspeaks.mp3

 A full transcript of the interview after the jump.

Five questions with Kwame Thomison   

FD: Do you affiliate with a party? 

KT:  I don’t see a point in affiliating with a party.  I have my own ideas, and I don’t agree with all the ideas of any particular party.  I consider myself [having] more liberal values than conservative ones but at times, you know, Democrats are too liberal or conservative for me.  Or even Republicans sometimes are too liberal or conservative to me.  No party really shares all of my values.

FD:  Okay.  So, do you like, dislike, or are indifferent to any third-party candidates or independent candidates? 

KT:  For the most part the little guys just don’t seem as attractive.  And, also, if I’m voting for one of them I’m essentially throwing away my vote, because I’m voting for someone who most likely is going to lose.  It makes more sense to vote for one of the people you think is actually going to win the election.

FD:  Keeping in mind examples like Green Party candidate Ralph Nader and his 2000 presidential run, many pundits claimed that he siphoned votes away from Al Gore, do you think third-party candidates can split major-party votes and can make an impact on an election?

KT:  Well closer elections the definitely have an impact because if you think about it all the ppl who voted for those third-party candidates if the third party candidate wasn’t available they would have had to choose one of the major party candidates.  Certainly there are some instances where the difference between votes would have been great enough that it would have changed the results of the election.  Is that a reason for them not to run? Certainly, not.  If they feel strongly enough that they should be president even if there’s  that slim chance.   I’m sure that they don’t care about it but they certainly can have an impact.

FD:  I recently wrote a blog post about some of the more outrageous third-party candidates running.  What do you think of people like “Average Joe” Schriner.  He calls himself Average Joe because his name is Joe.  He runs under the slogan :  “Oh, an average Joe for president…imagine that!”  And then there’s Jonathan “the Impaler” Sharkey.  And he formed this party called the Vampire, Witches and Satanic Party.  How much of this and people like that is people genuinely wanting to change our nation and not have to confirm to the value systems of one major party or another?  And how much of this, do you think is people just wanting attention and they just want to get out there?

KT:  If you want to be involved in the decision-making process for our country there’s definitely a way to go about it.  I’m not sure running for president is the best way to go about it.  If you believe in something, if you have a cause you can start a group.  I certainly think that’s a much more effective way to go about getting change in the country.  Although, in the primaries, you might have someone who is talking about something that no one else is talking about.  You can bring attention to an issue in that way, but if you’re one of these other people, like you mentioned Average Joe, it really seems like a way to get attention to me.  That doesn’t make any sense.  You don’t want a president who is average.  You want someone who is far above average, because if they’re just average then your next-door-neighbor might as well be running the country.

FD:  I know you were president of your undergraduate university’s student assembly and for a few years while you were there they had a ticket system.  From what I have gathered, the system was abandoned because it morphed into an almost a two-party system similar to the one the U.S. runs under today. Would you draw a parallel between people running for president of our nation and students who jumped in student assembly races in the same way? 

KT:  It is similar in some ways.  If you want to be president, you do cater to the people who can get you elected rather than catering to everybody.  When you’re running for president of the United States you might adopt an issue that will get you elected.   That is very similar to what, you know, what students do to get elected on campuses.

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