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Health & Fitness

I'm Voting for "None of the Above"

At last a viable candidate!

Well, the Iowa caucuses are over and one thing is clear: Voters in 2012 are faced with a choice between an unpalatable array of Republicans and a Democratic president who at best is just another Ivy League suit and at worst a Republican in disguise.

In an era where the average American has completely lost confidence in government at all levels, we are pretty much faced with a choice of voting for the lesser of many evils. With that in mind, I would like to propose that we start a grass roots movement calling for a constitutional amendment allowing voters to mark their ballots for “None of the Above.” At last we would have an effective way to show our dissatisfaction with our government. While polls show that only 8 percent of Americans approve of the way congress is doing its job, our politicians don’t seem to be getting the message. With my proposed constitutional amendment they would get the message loud and clear!

My amendment would also contain a provision that if the majority of voters cast their ballots for “None of the Above,” none of the losing candidates would be eligible to run for that office in any subsequent election held to fill that office and if they currently occupied that office it would become vacant at the end of their current turn should no one be elected to fill the position before the end of the current term. While some might seem this to be a bit harsh saying that it could only lead to gridlock and a possible shutdown of our federal government, I say that is what we have now in reality. We have a congress that seems bent upon paralyzing the United States government just to make a political statement.

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With my amendment in place, we would hopefully eventually get a whole new set of politicians in Washington who might realize that we, the American people, are fed up. Even if the result was not having enough members of congress to conduct business at least for the short term we would not have any more difficulties than we have now. Each day we go on with the circus that some call congress our nation is pretty much in limbo awaiting people of substance to step forward, and, if not solve, at least work on our problems.

My proposed constitutional amendment goes further than the Tea Party and the Occupy movement because both of those groups only seem to be venting and are offering no real solutions to our inept and seemingly dysfunctional system of government.

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I can hear the critics now, saying that my proposal is intended to make a joke of our political system. But, I say that the Democratic and Republican parties along with the Tea Party and the Occupy movement have already done that.

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