“The main thing holding together the establishment of the Democratic Party is the phoniness and hypocrisies of the Republican establishment. And the main thing holding together the establishment of the Republican Party is the phoniness and hypocrisies of the Democratic establishment.

Voters meanwhile, who are calling Congress at up to 99-to-1 against a bailout favored by both establishments, are on a course to cancel each other out. They seem set to divide themselves behind each establishment candidate: McCain — marketed as a “maverick” — is in fact a front man for Phil Graham who (as Banking Committee chair) oversaw bank deregulation; and Obama — marketed as a “change agent” — is in effect a front man for Robert Rubin who (as Treasury Secretary) oversaw the same bank deregulation.

The voters — as I propose on VotePact.org — should instead join together. Instead of canceling out each other — one voting for Obama and one for McCain — they should join together in pairs: Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, coworkers and neighbors and debating partners, union officials and small business owners should pair up and both vote for the third parties of their choice. If they both begin supporting different third parties, that will send a strong message. If they both start backing the same candidate, that could — given the unprecedented series of events — mean the re-alignment of American politics.

The obvious candidate to do this is Ralph Nader…..”

That’s Ramzy Baroud in The Palestine Chronicle.

Hmmm…where’s Paul in that? Why not Paul/Nader (we’ll work out the regulatory part later)? All these are utopian ideas, unfortunately. More viable is to forget politics and try other ways of changing things: pull out of the system as much as possible.