In closing part 1, I posed this query:

How can there be such a dramatic difference between the way we deal with others personally and the policies of government that we allow to continue? How can a people who thrive on peaceful cooperation and free trade among themselves have such a hateful, force-mongering, polarizing government?

The simple answer is that we have no easy alternative when it comes to government. Our nation is controlled by two political parties that manipulate all aspects of our society for their own benefit rather than for the good of the country. They're master manipulators, and superb propagandists, and they've been doing it so long that they have all the power and money they need to continue doing it. Despite a continuous bi-partisan string of disastrous policies and failed programs... despite having millions of citizens in prison, despite disastrous wars, despite becoming hated by the rest of the world... millions of voters continue to vote for their candidates, only because the other alternative seems worse.

When are Americans going to wake up and realize that neither the Republican or Democratic party is going to produce anything but more grief for all of us? When are more of us going to admit that forcing each other produces nothing but destruction?

We're facing an election where the "victor" is going to be either Bush or Kerry. There is no other likely winner. The truly sickening aspect of that is that the reason is not because there is no better alternative, but because the whole electoral system is rigged by two parties in control, to make alternatives all but impossible.

If we could take several hundred people off the street at random... perhaps from jury pools... and replace all of the U.S. Congress and the administration with them, it would be a distinct and immediate improvement over the results of the next election. Certainly there would be a few "bad eggs" in the group, but there already are. Yes, there would be some serious gridlock and indecision, but since virtually everything that has originated from Congress and the administration has been disastrous, gridlock and indecision would be a dramatic improvement.

That illustrates the worst damage that politicians and their parties have dumped on us... that they have convinced so many Americans that we can't trust ourselves... that WE are unworthy to control our own destinies... that only enlightened political "leaders" can do that for us, that only "they" know best. It's an exemplary pile of bullshit! The only thing holding our nation together, preventing it's collapse, is our economy, and that economy is the result of the uncontrolled cooperation of millions of ordinary citizens. Politicians claim to have some control over the economy, but in fact they can only tinker with it, and their tinkering only handicaps it. The more they try to control the economy, the harder it gets for the rest of us to do what just comes naturally... trading with each other, creating new products and services, doing more with less, and cooperating to produce better results. WE do that... not government. WE, the People, are this nation, not our "leaders". We've been sucked almost dry by politicians seeking to divide us into two camps, each trying to force their will on the other half. As I said in It's the economy, stupid ! :

the only way politicians can help the U.S. economy is to stop what they've been doing and to undo what they've already done. They can help the economy by repealing regulations, repealing laws, repealing existing programs, reducing government expenditures, and reducing taxes. If you want to give them credit for doing less... fine, but that's like thanking someone for loosening their stranglehold on your neck.

We are not a naturally-divided nation as politicians would like us to believe. The purported dichotomy of American politics is no more than an invented polarization created by the major parties each trying to scam us into voting against their opponent. Yes, there are many who HAVE foolishly bought into that scam and now declare themselves D & R party loyalists, but if we add together the number of "independent" voters, the massive number of non-voters, and the advocates of third parties, we have well over half of the voting population who HAVEN'T bought into the Blue/Red voter paintjob.

There is yet hope, but only if Americans reject the ugly choice the Republicans and Democrats have colluded to present to us. We do NOT have to choose between two evils... we deserve a lot better. Both Bush and Kerry are representatives of two parties that want to rule us through force. They each want us to choose their side over the other... not for substantial reasons, but for petty ones, and they're quite willing to polarize us to serve their own ends.

We don't need either. We don't need anyone deciding how we should run our lives; we are quite able to do that without their interference. If we can each remember that, and resolve to toss out the pretenders, we are left with one, and only one, candidate with that message. That candidate is Michael Badnarik, candidate of the Libertarian Party. Badnarik and his party are nothing like the R's and D's... they want you to again have the freedom to run your own life. They want us to have the freedom to continue working with each other peacefully... without the insidious polarization of the politics of force.