I'll bet, as you read my column, "Wouldn't It Be Great?", you though, "Poor old Hermit, he's gone over the edge living that life of solitude out there in the desert, dreaming idealistically of changing our government into true representative government. The government is, and always has been, big, corrupt, intrusive and so involved in self preservation that it will never be changed...No way, Hermit!"

I agree that there is no way to eliminate our two-party system by going through the courts or by attempting to change the constitution through the initiative process, but there is one way. It is so simple that even you, the readers, should get excited about it. Yes, you and you and you out there can bring down this corrupt house of cards in one fell stroke, and get your representative working for you without spending one, red cent.

Let me tell you how to do it...you know I will.

All it takes is for every registered voter to reregister as an Independent. The end result would panic every politician running for office. They would have to immediately switch from Democrat or Republican to Independent in order to have any constituency.

In our state and federal government offices, the majority and minority leadership would automatically be eliminated because all elected officials would be Independent. There would only be Senate Leader or Speaker and a Speaker of the House or Assembly.

The way things are at the present, you don't really know anything about the candidates you're voting for. Right now you are voting for the one who spends the most or has the most charismatic personality. The incumbent or the best "connected" has the most money to spend on TV commercials. The poor, honest challengers usually have to go in debt to keep up or even challenge.

An informed voter is a rarity, but now with the disclosure rules and the required posting on the internet, there is no excuse for being an uninformed voter.

Our State's Attorney General, Bill Jones has put together a great website where you can find out any and every thing about election politics, including a wealth of information about each candidate. It is located at:
http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Global/search.asp?SEARCH=Wyman%2C+Phil

I chose Phil Wyman's disclosure link because he has the most money, and I wanted to know where it was coming from. You can enter the name of any candidate in the search box and get the information about them.

Another example, you can find out about any current Propositions on the March, 5 ballot. Who, what, when, where and how much. Check out: http://www.calvoter.org/iwatch/2002/march.html

If you follow Prop. 45's for and against donors and how much, you'll find that major unions and political groups, who have already bought their politicians, don't want to have to buy new ones every two years. So they are backing a yes vote with gobs of money.

For any and all information about current and past activities of our Federal Government go to:
http://thomas.loc.gov/

I sincerely hope that prospective voters will take advantage of these informative links and become familiar with the issues and people they will be voting for.

James Fox
Columnist,
Mountaineer Progres Newspaper