If dreams came true. Talk about not wanting to wake up!

Do you ever have that nanosecond in the morning when the dream you were having carries into your waking moments and it feels crushingly real? If it's a great dream you get that little thrill in your chest and you can feel the surge of energy followed by the crash of disappointment. If it's a nightmare you feel a weight descending upon you that thankfully is removed as soon as awareness of your state creeps in.

I woke this morning having dreamed it was a month or so into the future. Maybe near the conventions? I'm not sure. Anyway, I saw a crawl on one of the 24 hour media outlets that Al Gore had declared his candidacy as an independent. Now I realize I am on Democratic Underground and we're not supposed to discuss independents, but seeing as how this was just a dream and Al is ostensibly a democrat I hope I will be given some latitude.

I am not naive, nor am I going to pin ridiculous hopes on something that is beyond a longshot. But oh how sweet it would be. I'm beyond disgusted with the process within both parties although I still consider myself a democrat and would love to see reform from within. However, it is absolutely clear that the business of politics is to perpetuate the power of the party (and the corporation) rather than transform our society and planet into the healthiest one possible. It would be beyond delicious to see any individual / grass roots movement with the ability to humble the system for a change.

If Gore wanted to run then that's what he should have done. I'd be completely disgusted if he jumped in now, and I'd work my ass off to defeat him. Fortunately, Al is a democrat, not the most craven kind of spoiler.

I have no doubt that that is exactly how some would react if he did indeed do that. I think the response is in part tied to the historical precedent of the clutch of two-party politics in the United States. For some odd reason any more than two candidates strikes many Americans as undemocratic. Not entirely sure why that has crept into our psyche so strongly when limiting us to two candidates is far more undemocratic.

So many people talk about wanting to get rid of inter-party rancor yet are unwilling to recognize how pluralistic systems that require coalition building can do that. Now I'm not stupid. I do realize there are advantages and disadvantages in any system. I just find it odd that the country hell-bent on exporting democracy has hardly tried it themselves.

For the record, if Al enters the fray as an independent candidate I'll eat my son's dirty socks for dinner. I hope I made it clear it was a sleeping dream and not a day dream.

Cheers

But I think your dream would be a nightmare.

President McCain or President Romney.

I'd love to have a multi-party system in this country. But the parties in power would have to do a number of things to allow that to happen... so they won't.

rather than any sort of statistical polling data. I live in a very very red county. Our Republican Executive Committee experienced its first rank and file rebellion in eons in late 2006. Why? A splinter group petitioned Al Gore to run and pledged to switch to the DEC if he did. Very few people know about this because of the iron clamp the REC has. It was quashed and hushed up very quickly.

Aside from that, I have way too many Republicans in my extended family who astoundingly admitted to me that if Gore ran again they'd jump ship instantly. (Atone for past mistakes? *grin*)

Who knows. I fear we're headed for President McCain anyway. Those same Republicans seem to be of the opinion that he is a centrist and don't believe me when I tell them the story about singing "Bomb Iran." Thank goodness for YouTube!

Democrat nomination.

I'm in no way suggesting my dream reflects either reality or influences my ability to think rationally. It was just a dream.