"I hate to say I told you so..."

"The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein

For years, Americans have been dragging themselves to the polls and voting for the lesser of two evils. And that seems to be the accepted norm for exercising their "freedom" of choice and for choosing their leader(s) of the this country at all levels of government.

However, choices based on that strategy seem to work only for the short-term (at best), and after closer scrutiny, aren't really choices at all. In the long run, it seems that regardless of how much "change" we vote in, the newly elected pick up where their predecessors left off, totally or in part, and the law of diminishing returns sets in.

Term after term, the "lesser of two evils" lowers the quality of life for everyone and keeps approaching the perceived goal of America's decline.  MAKE NO MISTAKE.  This occurs regardless of which political party is in power. The hole to dig out of becomes deeper, and successive presidents, senators and representatives (each one "the lesser of two evils") are less capable and less willing to do the necessary digging, but more eager and more willing to whittle away at your rights and justify an insatiable appetite for spending your money.

That has been the story of leadership across this American Republic for at least the last century, or so.

And every election cycle, those seeking your vote prey on the short attention spans and memories of the American people.  They present a crisis (manufactured) that their predecessor/political party has been dropping the ball on, and the only solution to this problem is voting for them and the political party they represent.  

How many of you have heard, or even said, "At least he's not (insert name of current politician that seems like the complete opposite of who you're voting)"  OR, "I'm not that enthusiastic about either, but I have to go with the lesser of two evils.  This country is in real trouble!"

Where does it stop?!

The voter who is chronically addicted to the "lesser of two evils" is like a man in debt who borrows to pay it off. He borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. 

And just like the federal debt, which grows only as fast as the justification for it, the election of one lesser after another keeps expanding America further and further from the country in which our founders envisioned. Finally, the thought of stepping outside the two-party system to find a real candidate who actually believes in the Constitution seems like a pipe dream, because all the prior "lessers" have screwed things up so badly, have sold so out badly, have trampled on the Constitution so blatantly, that the shell-shocked public accepts these "lessers" as the status quo and they just hunker down and absorb their captivity and the futility of their action to change it.  Eventually, they become the "lessers" most ardent campaigners and their captivity births Political Stockholm Syndrome.

At that point, people say, "Stop all this nonsense about a third-party candidate. You will never win.  We have to choose from the two candidates in front of us, and the parties they represent. Sometimes, you have to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils."

It might be interesting to ask people at polls across the nation, "Are you voting for the lesser of two evils today?"

With Mark Wichern, you don't have to worry about ever making that choice.  You don't ever have to worry about choosing between parties.  In fact, an election victory for Mark Wichern would be a direct victory for you, and not any political party.  If you haven't figured it out by now, Mark Wichern is running under No Party Affliliation for US Congress, Florida-District 1.  Now before you exercise your Political Stockholm Syndrome and list the various reasons why he's not running Republican or Democrat, press the pause button and absorb the following with an open mind, keeping in mind that the first three words of the US Constitution (Preamble) are "We the People," and they are written in a text size at least 10 times larger than the rest of the Constitution.  I assure you, this wasn't the founders' realizing they would run out of space if they didn't change the text size, rather an emphasis on the bedrock of the entire document, and a reminder to us where all power was derived:
Mark Wichern is not running NPA because he can't beat the sitting Republican or Democrat.  He's running NPA because he truly believes that stepping outside the control of political parties will render them ineffectual, and his election victory will belong to ONLY the voters who elected him, NOT a political party who cannot be held responsible.  Mark Wichern holds the same view as George Washington when he warned our young country about the pitfalls of political parties in his farewell address, as he left office, as our first president:

"...Let me warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally...It exists under different shapes in all governments, but in those of the popular form it is truly their worst enemy.The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads, at length, to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security in the absolute power of an individual, and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, who turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty..."

Sound familiar?  If you cannot see that this short excerpt describes, in a chilling way, what we call "politics as usual," today, then it wouldn't even matter if George Washington said, "I told you so."