Two men two votes

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand.........GO!" the gun fires.

It's Election Time, Hooray!

The two contestants get off to a good clean start crossing the line. In the blue trunks the first contestant heads for a big stack of books, not taking anything lightly they start with Adam Smith's: the wealth of nations.

After comprehensively flicking through this they move onto Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest & Money tossing it aside as they reconsider laissez faire angle in Milton Friedman's Capatalism and Freedom.

With a firm grasp of Economic fundamentals and core issues with government economic policy he begins building an ethical basis, the logical starting point of course is consequentialism John Stuart Mill provides the utilitarian approach, while Machiavelli the pure consequence driven dogma. The next battle front is Deontology and Kant comes through to explain the intrinsic values.
Wanting a biological perspective the contender picks up 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkin's and then some Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' and 'Pale Blue Dot' to give some much needed perspective on the anthropocentrism.

With this background in ethical conduct as it relates to the physical laws the contestant pulls out the policy documents of the candidates and begins projecting the likely impacts of each upon the life and listing them preferentially.

When it comes to foreign policy the contestant turns to Noam Chomsky's 'Deterring Democracy' and then leafs through back issues of 'National Review' for some perspective on the conservative movement and then various publications of the socialist perspective such as Adbusters, Das Kapital and watches some documentaries on various civil rights movements.

Now looking at the major issues of Climate change, the Economic Meltdown and the War on Terrorism the candidate goes through a back log of press coverage. Observes the evidence for both sides of the argument then looks at the policies promoted as to which side to vote for.



The contestant in the Red Trunks watches some morning news shows. And between such journalistic pieces as 'The Ultimate BBQ' and a preview of forthcoming 'Watchmen' movie (the reviewer said the plot was confusing and not as good as Batman or Ironman because of the lack of action) there is some superficial coverage of some soundbites.

One sickday the red contestant even sees the political campaign discussed by the panel of 'The View' but the point of it is quickly forgotten.

AT LAST! The end of the vote is insight. Both voters red & blue finish at the same time, because it's an election, not a foot race. Their votes have around the same impact as eachother. The red trunks voter vote's for someone based on their vague impression that feeds their strong conviction they are voting for the right candidate but without actually checking to see if the rhetoric is backed up by policy.

The blue trunks voter haven taken on the duty of all voters to inform themselves instead donkey votes, knowing neither candidate is actually fit for the challenges presented as their policies pander to the vast majority of irresponsible voters that don't even bother to inform themselves.

Democracy works!