The Panda Bear on Third Parties, George McGovern and Party Line Democrates

The Panda Bear wants to encourage her reader to listed to the debate of the third party candidates for US President  at 8:55 pm EST on October 23 at Free and Equal.   The Panda Bear is very angry at the two party system which arbitrarily shuts out other parties.   She may end up voting for a third party candidate just to keep other political parties active in Massachusetts(according to Massachusetts state law third parties have to receive a certain number of votes in a presidential election to retain party status).

In this busy election season, the Panda Bear would like to pay her respects to George McGovern.   Per the previous link, he was greatly responsible for starting the modern primary system of elections, something which the Panda Bear did not know until now.   She remembered him as a peace advocate both during the Vietnam war and in our present times.

The Panda Bear remembers when he ran for president in 1972.   The Panda Bear was too young to vote.    Father Panda and Mother Panda were one of the few people in the Panda Bear's social circle who voted for Richard Nixon; they saw McGovern as being too soft on national defense; Father Panda was one of the only supporter of the Vietnam war that the Panda Bear knew.   Just before he died, Father Panda admitted that the Vietnam war was was wrong.

In 1972, the Panda Bear thought George McGovern was extreme and flaky.   However, now the Panda Bear thinks he sounded like a good person.   After he left politics, he ran a small business and wrote about the problems of business owners.   The Panda Bear commends his critiques of the Iraq war.   He may not have made a good president but he seems to have been moral human being.

The Panda Bear wishes modern Democrats would learn from George McGovern.   He was a Democrats who was not afraid of critiquing Democratic presidents.   Democrats at one time could disagree with each other!!!

Right now most Democrats seem to follow a party line and very few Democratic politicians seem capable of thinking for themselves and they tolerate virtually  no dissent.   Despite George McGovern's reforms to make the primary system more open, the Democratic party now seems to be a top down rather than grassroots party.

Many people are surprised to find out that there are more dissenters within the Republican than in the Democratic party and that two of the third party presidential candidates(Gary Johnson and the Panda Bear thinks it Virgil Goode who were former Republicans).

Therefore, the Panda Bear things there needs to be more dissent and debate among people who might believe in some of the ideals of the Democratic party but dislike some of their politicians and the way the party is currently being managed.   Perhaps a new party is the answer.

The Panda Bear on Predicting a Romney Win

The Panda Bear is an average worker.   Consequently, she has had not much time to prepare a blog post.   However, today the Panda Bear had this revelation and she wished to share it to the web.   She predicts a victory for Mitt Romney.   News sources note-The Panda Bear is still an undecided voter.

The Panda Bear makes this prediction for these reasons:

1) The Panda Bear and others are looking at third party candidates.  Third party candidates usually do well when people are unhappy with the incumbent.
2) Weak support among the base-In Massachusetts which is a very Democratic state, many people aren't saying whom they are voting for because the Panda Bear thinks they are considering Romney.   If your base does not support who will?
3) Events in Libya.   Obama's poor handling of the situation on Libya reminds the Panda Bear of Jimmy Carter's problem with the US embassy in Iran.

The Panda Bear believes the Democratic party is in bad need of reform.   Right now it seems like a top down party.   If the Panda Bear believed Obama would carry the state so Panda Bear's individual vote would not matter, the Panda Bear would cast a third party vote to keep alternative parties to the Democrats and Republicans alive in Massachusetts.

The Panda Bear has some advise to Elizabeth Warren.   She needs to be more of an "independent" Democrat.   The Panda Bear would consider voting for her if she believed Elizabeth Warren was capable of disagreeing with Obama particularly in foreign policy.  Right now Elizabeth Warren is selling herself has the
Democratic party line.

The Panda Bear on Blogging, the Presidential Debate and Leadership.

The Panda Bear has found that blogging is cutting into her exercise schedule.   However, the Panda Bear hopes to rent a lock at the YMCA so she can take her computer with after work so she can do some blog posting between work and exercise.  The Panda Bear finds that she is a typical American in that to do more of one thing means doing less of another item.

The Panda Bear would like to comment on the terrible job Obama did on the debate.  Some of the time, he seemed like a two year old on the verge of a temper tantrum.  He seemed to resent the idea of having to debate a political opponent.   For shame Obama!!! This is what makes us a free society; incumbents have to defend their political record.

However, the Panda Bear thinks it is a very common problem that people in high position get spoiled and they lose their ability to hear criticism.  It is hard to convey unpleasant truths to people in power without fear of bad consequences for oneself.   The Panda Bear thinks it is a very rare quality in leaders that they are able to create safe environments were those under them can tell them things they don’t want to hear.

Several times the Panda Bear has tried to bring up disagreements with those who have authority over her.   Often the response is an unfriendly “Ms. Bear, maybe the problem is you.”  At this point the Panda Bear feels that discretion is the better part (quality) than valor and changes the subject.

The Panda Bear on Early Voting, Employers and Healthcare Reform

The Panda Bear has been busy with the election season.   Actually, she has begun burn out over the upcoming elections..   She will need to read a light novel in addition to her studying up on the election issues.   There will be two major debates this week that the Panda Bear would like to see.   The Presidential debate will be on October 3, this Wednesday.  Today on October 1, there will be a debate between the two candidates for US senate. This election seems very close and probably will where the Panda Bear's vote will count the most in the fall election.

It seems deeply unfair to the Panda Bear that in many states they have early voting which is starting now in some battle ground states.   People can vote even before the presidential debates and well over a month before people in Massachusetts are able to vote.

The Panda used to be more a Democrat than a Republican.   However, in Massachusetts the Democrats control almost all offices.   There is a lot of corruption in Massachusetts for which the Democrats have done nothing.   The Panda Bear is thinking of working for a third political party; she thinks reform is badly needed. She found this website called isidewith.com and found out she really like the third party candidates (Gary Johnson, Jill Stein) for president and the party she liked most was the Green Party.  Actually, The Panda Bear is thinking about finding out more about the Massachusetts Green Party.

Today, The Panda Bear was reading about the many preventative services that will be covered in full under Obamacare.   However, the Panda Bear wonders if employers will give workers the time off to use these services.

The Panda Bear believes the government needs to educate and/or mandate employers are what they need to do to maintain their employee’s health.   Many workers have to use all their “vacation” time for physician appointments.  

Today the Panda Bear was feeling blue at work.   She has read exercise and stretching can improve mood.   However, many supervisors want people to sit and their desk continuously which is not necessarily the best for employee health.