Hell in a hand basket I say...hell in a hand basket...

Not being a declared democrat or republican, but being liberal in my politcal thoughts and ideals....it makes me sick that we've actually turned our political voting system in this country into a huge popularity contest. It hit me like a ton of bricks the other day. What other reasons could you give to our current president, the son of a former president, and that really being the only he's got going for him getting elected into office. Yes, he was a governor, but he only got that job because, bingo, he was the son of a president. Name recoginition, folks. That's what we are voting on. What else would explain the governor of our largest, most populated state being elected. It can't be based on his shining past politcal record. No, it's instead because he starred in movies like The Terminator and Predator. What else explains The Kennedys, who depite being insiders in Washington for decades, can't seem to give away an election when they run due to the fact that their name alone is probably most associated with American politics. What else explains a president who was embroiled in controversy first over real estate dealings and then because of his "affairs" in the white house and yet still walked out smelling like roses with one of the highest approval raitings ever, having people actually state they would vote for him again. We perpetuate our own crooked system by the attention we and our media draw making all these re-elections self fullfilling prophecies by the fame we give these officials. Folks, we're not voting for ideals or issues anymore. We're voting simply based on a name. A name and a word associated to our beliefs. "Conservative or liberal." "Red or Blue". We've allowed ourselves to all be pigeonholed into these convienant slots, all the while those we've elected into office make this a murkier and more depressing world in the name of our basic rights, that were supposed to be protected by the bill of rights. The only bill of rights anybody seems to stand by anymore is the one drawn up by big business. "He who write the checks has the rights." I don't want to be seen as a percentage point or a color anymore. I don't want my ideals to be summed up anymore by what is largely an understood convienient term thrown into our politcal vocabulary. It simply means I am one of many, and that my part of a percentage point doens't need to be listened to because I will have no matter in the outcome. I have no power as a percentage point. Whatever happened to revolution?