[€uroMeinke]

I am an anarchist.

I believe the entire political system to be a sham by which people are deluded into thinking they are getting what they want. Despite the myth of "public service" politics tends to attract politicians, that is self serving individuals more converned about "winning" than actually making the world a better place. The chief advantage of the political system is it makes people's behavior both more predictable and controlable, ultimately making it easier for them to be taken advantage of, or at least manipulated in a way the serves my own interests.

My parents were immigrants from Nazi Germany and with that brought numerous stories of governemnts and economies vanishing overnight. They came to the US following the promise of the American Dream and ultimately became both patriotic and democratic which was possible at the time (c. 1962).

In persuing his dream, my father became ill, had a brain tumor, surgery, and became dissabled. His insurance covered the first three months of hospital bills, his pension marginally supplemented the meager social security benefit, which became our sole source of income after the mid seventies when my father's old workplace went bankrupt. The chief benefit from going from Middle Class to poverty is it made it much easier for me to secure financial aid through college. Riding the tale end of the baby boom, most of the programs I was able to take advantage of, no longer exist.

So Health Care is an issue for me, but in my life time I've seen that promise fade enough times to no longer care. Free Speech issues have also been big with me, possibly inherited from my father's foolishness of speaking out against the Nazi's while living in Germany - But in setting up a PAC in response to the NEA 4 controversy, I found myself face to face with the ugly political machine of the democratic party which was more about winning the given election (or rather making sure the Republican would loose) than doing anything more than taking our ideals as window dressing.

I still vote in the elections, but I tend to favor porn stars or punk rockers than politicians. I was happy to see Gray Davis go, since from being within my industry, I watched him avoid doing anything proactive to avoid the whole CA energy crisis, even though he knew it was coming but wasn't politically expediant for him to do anything. I'm sad to see the CA Governor's race is once again D vs. R. I will likely vote Green, or Libertarian, or write in Jerry Brown's name.