This site was originally hosted at another domain as a matter of convenience (because that site existed and this one didn’t). Now that it has moved into its own domain, I suppose I ought to provide a link back to its original home, which is still relevant. Here it is:
Update: The original domain where this material was posted, “IWantAChoice.com” was turned over to someone else and, in the course of time, abandoned. I’ve reproduced the text from that site below, and here is a pointer to the original, courtesy of the wayback machine…
The original logo (shown below) was designed by P.J. Keegan based on a vague description I provided of what I had in mind. You might notice a distinct similarity to the one used later by the AARP “Divided We Fall” campaign. I don’t know where theirs came from but I promise that I (and P.J. Keegan) was there first…
I found the 2000 presidential election so frustrating that I spent about $1000 to start and publicize my own web-site, called IWantAChoice.com, devoted to convincing people to vote for someone — anyone — other than the candidates offered by the Democratic and Republican parties. In addition to the following exhortations, I offered for sale bumper stickers proclaiming my own protest vote, “Cheney/Lieberman 2000” and “Lieberman/Cheney 2000”; I got 8 takers on the bumper stickers and a few hundred hits on the web-site during the three months it was active prior to the election. The highlight of my publicity campaign was a mention (with a picture of the bumper sticker!) in Al Kamen’s column in the Washington Post, which resulted, as near as I can tell, in one sale to a blessed soul in Silver Springs, MD. So much for grass-roots revolutions and the magic of the internet.
10 August 2000
- Are you tired of viewing elections not as democracy but as damage control?
- Do you often have trouble telling what the political parties stand for– or telling them apart?
- Are you dismayed that the primary electoral strategy of both major parties seems to be “bait and switch” — say one thing to win elections and another to govern?
- Are you fed up with candidates whose primary policy agenda is “get elected”, and whose overarching political philosophy is “I should be in charge”?
- Are you angry with both the Republicans and the Democrats for offering you flash and subterfuge in place of judgement and integrity?
INSIST THAT THEY DO BETTER!
We get these non-choices because we accept them. It’s not just that we vote for one of them on election day as the lesser of two evils. It’s worse: we spend the entire election season steeling ourselves for that vote, rationalizing our selection by imagining how awful it could be if the other guy wins, rather than imagining how good it could be if we had a real choice.
If you don’t like what the major parties offer, don’t fall into that trap. To be resigned to the process is to resign from it – so don’t do it. Don’t be passive, be vocal. Tell them you are unhappy. Tell them you want better.
If you are fed up with what the major parties have to offer, register your protest by voicing your support for an alternative. There are links on this site [well, there were — I haven’t reproduced them here –apl] to many alternative parties and alternative candidates. If you find one that appeals to you, support them.
If you find none of the other parties appealing, if you want to reform the mainstream parties rather than abandon them, I offer another alternative: my version of a better, though not ideal, ticket. Order one of the bumper stickers offered below [again, long gone — apl] and display it proudly — as a demand for a better choice.
© Copyright 2000, Augustus P. Lowell