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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!nathanm
From: nathanm@hp-pcd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: A Modest Proposal
Message-ID: <12800015@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Feb-84 16:00:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.12800015
Posted: Fri Feb  3 16:00:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 9-Feb-84 07:45:09 EST
Organization: Hewlett-Packard - Corvallis, OR
Lines: 38
Nf-ID: #N:hp-kirk:12800015:000:1483
Nf-From: hp-kirk!nathanm    Feb  3 13:00:00 1984


Listen.  Billy Pilgrim is unstuck in time.

Now that I've captured your bewilderment, consider this:

National politics is a cesspool in which the large chunks rise to
the top.  Walter Mondale is promising to take us from the post-
industrial age into the industrial age.  Ronald Reagan is riding
the crest of a recovery he didn't create.  National elections are
circuses in which candidates plan non-events so the media can
give the public the impression that something significant is
happening.  When it comes right down to it, it doesn't really
matter who's in charge.

If this worldview strikes close to home, read on.

It's time for the disaffected among us to do something.  The usenet
has enormous potential as a political force.  Aside from access
to the net, we have nothing in common, so choosing an existing
candidate to support is clearly out of the question.  What we
need to do is create our own candidate.  For the primaries.  For
the election.  For America.

I'm not sure where to start... this idea is still in the
germinal stages.  I might suggest something ridiculous like
electing an astronaut, but that wouldn't be original.  We
need to define our candidate from scratch.  Our candidate
needs a name, a sex, a personality, a platform, a slogan (how
about "Who's in charge here?") and, of course, a following.

Let's put our creative minds to work and assemble a
presidential candidate for 1984.

Hi-ho.

----
Nathan Meyers
{allegra!harpo,hplabs}!hp-pcd!nathanm