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Thanks again to everyone who supported me and helped promote my last post about the economic bailout, presidential race, and culture war. I’ve said my peace, so I’ll try my hardest to make this my very last political post until next year, but I just wanted to follow up on the discussion.

If you haven’t been following it, there are a few good comments in response to my article here on ThrillingHeroics.com, but it also gained some traction on Digg and StumbleUpon, and Jun Loayza and others have graciously promoted my article across the web! This comment comes from my friend John Carey, via Digg:

“Thank you for writing this article. It inspired me to actually log into my Digg account and make one of my first comments. You summarized with eloquence many of the stories we have been seeing on sites like Digg, connecting them in a way which draws the picture plain. This is a runaway government on the verge of becoming despotic. We are closer to fascism than we have ever seen. The citizens remain the last check and balance on a government who is not looking out for the good of the country and its people, but for whatever special interests pump the most lobbying dollars into the halls of Congress.

However this is OUR country. The leaders will listen when the citizens are outraged, and the companies will bend when our dollar support is removed. You or I or any one of us can leverage the anger of injustice to great heights, if we are willing to lead. The leaders aren’t doing their job, and its up to the younger, educated, and patriotic (not nationalistic) leaders to emerge.

As your article states, there is no innocent party in this mess. We are all responsible. Thank you for reminding us that finger pointing is useless, and unless one has the resolve to go after his or her truth, we will be bound to the fate that follows from inaction.

Side note- Religious organizations have no right to force their beliefs into our State government. To my fellow Californians, vote No on 8.”

Thanks to John and Robb especially for your thoughtful responses. It’s rewarding to get heartfelt responses from people and know that it was worthwhile to put the effort into this article and publish it for the world to see!

Also, a few people disliked my conclusion. When I said “I’m not asking you to vote for Obama. Vote for Bob Barr. Or better yet, write in Ron Paul. Vote for Stephen Colbert. Or vote for me! …” some people felt that I was asking readers to throw their votes away. My point though, was to encourage you to vote with your principles. Although I respect my conservative friends and family, I think a McCain presidency will be bad for this country and for the world right now. But I really am not expecting conservatives to vote for Obama if he’s not what they believe in. I think there are a lot of smart conservatives out there who aren’t represented accurately by the McCain/Palin ticket and I think you should make that clear with your vote. I also really want people to show the world that there is a large portion of the American people that are craving for a third-party voice. If you were a hardcore Ron Paul supporter, then I think you should write him in. If you align with the Libertarian party, then give your vote to Bob Barr, and so on. I think Obama stands a really good chance to win this year, and I think that will be good for us in many ways. He isn’t anywhere near perfect, but I think he is better than the alternative. I think at the same time we can also stop playing this game of the “lesser of two evils.”

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have much of a conclusion—unfortunately, I don’t know what the solutions are; all that I know is how many friends of mine feel powerless and frustrated that we are not getting closer to any solutions with the way we do politics right now. Above all else, I put this out there to spark discussion and get people actually thinking about and debating the issues, and encourage people to make up their own minds and draw their own conclusions.  Please, even if you disagree with me, keep the comments coming.

If you enjoyed the post, please help vote for it on Digg and StumbleUpon. Thank you guys for all of your support and for starting such great talking points!

I also wanted to share a few last articles and links from around the web this week. Many of these writers express their points much more eloquently than I ever could:

• How to pick a president – Scott Berkun discusses the need for us to look at restructuring elections, debates, and the whole game. He also gives readers some fantastic pointers to evaluate the actual merit of a political candidate (something I think may be useful to you in future election years too).
• What Sarah Palin is Saying – Anil Dash discusses, much more effectively than I, the danger that lies in Sarah Palin’s approach and in the subtle fear- and hate-based rhetoric being used by the parts of Republican party this year.
• How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington – George Monbiot asks why education and intellectual sharpness have been demonized in politics.
• CNN and Rolling Stone look at the GOP’s campaign to deter new voters this year. Looks scary, but hopefully all votes will be counted accurately.
• Engage ‘08 is a good site to see how your opinions on the issues align with the major presidential candidates (Nader and Barr included!)