this week's sermon is a little early because tomorrow is halloween & i might end up passing out candy or doing hell know's what tomorrow night. next week's sermon will not appear on tuesday night either, because next tuesday is election day & i'll most likely be glued to the tv watching returns come in from the polls. i'll probably wait until afterward & then write about election results, but i can't be certain either of that or when specifically it will "go to press" as they say.

since this is the last sermon before the election, i must seize it as my last chance to influence your impressionable minds regarding what you should do when you're in the voting booth. you should vote your conscience. you should not fall prey to major party scare-tactics.

in the past several weeks i've seen a barrage of discussion from people insisting that nobody should vote for nader. are these people saying this because they disagree with nader's platform? because that's the only valid reason not to vote for nader (well, unless you live in one of the 2-3 states where he's not on the ballot). no, they are employing a variety of of scare tactics designed to convince you that really terrible things will happen if you vote nader.

in fact if you even knew raplh nader was running, i'm sure you've heard by now the "a vote for nader is a vote for bush" argument. the argument basically goes that al gore may suck, but that gw bush is the antichrist himself, & if elected will personally (& within one term, mind you) transform the united states into a place worse than hades itself. it is made of several smaller fallacious sub-arguments, all of which i can remember i will debunk here.

"the next prez gets 3 supreme court nominations": yes, 2-3 of the justices on the supreme court will be stepping down in the next few years, & apparently both major-party candidates have mentioned what type of justices they'd try to appoint. the allegation here is that bush would elect super-die-hard republican justices who would immediately overturn roe vs wade as well as make dozens of other decisions to turn the country into a fascist police state or something like that. in reality, all supreme court nominations must be approved by the senate, so it's not like adolf hitler will make it to the bench. furthermore, justices have a surprising trend to not behave as expected. some of the more "liberal" justices were in fact nominated by republicans, & vice versa. many of the big hot-button issues (especially abortion) are to date 6-3 in the court, meaning that which particular justices are replaced & by whom is highly important. & finally, the public has become so used to the supposed option of getting an abortion that there would be a major uprising if all-the-sudden roe v wade were overturned. (michael moore wrote a great article about exactly this issue titled "ain't falling for that one again" on page at http://www.michaelmoore.com).

"each vote for nader takes away a vote from gore": this might be true if the green party were a party that had just recently split away from the democrats like the dixiecrats or something. but that's not the case. the green party is a wholly separate party running on a platform that in no way resembles the platform of most of today's democratic party (it's more like the platform the democrats would've had 30 years ago, before they sold out). & the simple fact is that most of nader's core following does not come from gore voters; some (like me) are people who would've already voted third-party, & the majority are people who probably wouldn't have voted at all if nader weren't running (if, like those people, you're registered to vote but not sure you will, i urge you to read the letter "gore and bush make me wanna ralph", again on http://www.michaelmoore.com).

"the danger of a republican president & a republican congress": it is true that when both the majority of congress & the president are of the same party, it's much easier for them to get laws passed. but as michael moore rightly points out (hell, you should really just read everything on michaelmoore.com. it's very informative & insightful), nader's candidacy is probably going to do a lot to ensure that the democrats will gain power in congress. after all, nader will bring many people to the polls who otherwise might not've voted. & when those voters look on their ballots & see no greens up for their congressional district, who will they vote for? surely not republicans... & even if the gop somehow gets the white house & keeps its hold on congress, it can't possibly make world-shattering policy changes on too many hot issues without widescale rioting in the streets. & politicians know this. none of them want to infuriate their constituents, so you can be sure that public opinion polls will weigh heavily on any such decisions that're made.

"he won't even get 5% so your vote will be a total waste": the 5% being mentioned here is the fact that if nader gets 5% of the vote, the green party will get full federal funding next time around, equal to the other parties. this alone would be a great victory for the greens. most people don't think nader could really win (it's possible, but incredibly unlikely); they're just hoping for the 5% among other things. some people are still convinced the greens won't get that 5%, but i'm pretty sure they will. let's look at the facts: nader has had rallies with more than 12,000 in attendence, & these weren't even free to attend; that many people in one city PAID to hear nader speak. nader has shown up as high as 13% (i've even heard 17%) in some polls, & polls are not even the ultimate indicator of how a vote will go down. polls only question "likely voters" for one thing, & many people who will end up voting nader, as i've said already, are people who might not've voted at all if he weren't running.

"if nader does get 5%, the democrats will just move even more to the right": maybe they will. i can't say that won't be how it happens (i can't say it will, either). but if so, that will only serve to increase the people's disgust with the democratic party even more. then even more people will turn to discover the greens or possibly other newer "left-wing" parties, which is exactly what should happen.

finally, the issues: proponents of the "nader vote = bush vote" argument will often list various issues, claiming that bush will do horrible things to our country based on these issues. but when you look closely, you find that bush & gore have shockingly similar views on many many important issues. thus most of the horrible things that bush theoretically could do (see above for reasons why whatever won't happen) could just as easily happen under gore. are bush & gore the same? it's fun to say so, & for most intents & purposes they really are, but not 100%. bush is probably slightly worse. am i willing to vote nader even if it means bush might get elected? i am. even if my vote were only symbolic, it would still be a symbol of something i believe in & not something that disgusts me. if gore loses to bush, it'll be his own fault for not appealing to nader voters, not nader's fault for stealing those votes. the green party is basically what the democratic party was always supposed to be, but hasn't since before the reagan era. it's not nader's fault that people believe in those issues.

am i saying everyone should vote for nader? not really. i'm voting for him & think he's the best candidate, & i say you should vote the same way. if you like hell, then vote for gore. if browne or hagelin appeal more to your personal beliefs, vote for them. hell, if you actually like bush then vote for bush (although i can't see how anyone could actually like him, spoiled rich-kid idiot that he is). don't let anyone tell you that your vote will ruin the election, or that you can't vote for the candidate who most reflects your ideals for any reason. voting your conscience is what our political system was based on. it's obviously not a perfect system, but it's one that CAN work (i'm not saying it's been working recently, though, largely because of the type of thinking i've been trying to disprove here & the kind of corporate bribery nader is trying to fight). so vote for whoever you like, not who others tell you to vote for. just as long as you do vote (& if you don't vote, make sure never to mention to me that you didn't...).