The state of current affairs is getting to everyone across the board.

Today , I found a new web site published by a conservative group emerging out of the Cato Institute. It is called the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign-policy.

http://www.realisticforeignpolicy.org/

Those who have been reading this blog know that I do not generally write from a conservative perspective. I have been calling for military and intelligence restraint because of the provocative and negative effects of our foreign policy. (See previous postings.)

I'm excited to know that people from across the spectrum are beginning to notice the same thing that the political left media has been writing about for some time, that our national leadership is out of control.

The Executive Branch is the most secretive in history, It is spending wildly on war. Much of the defense budget is secret and not subject to audit or review. Human rights abuses by our military have been revealed. The deficit is out of control. Republican controlled congressional oversight committees have backed away from their duty to question presidential initiatives. There seems to be no one in DC that truly questions what is happening, and so the White House does as much as it feels it can get away with.

There are structural reasons why the leadership in US government appears increasingly to behave as if no one can tell them to stop. No one can tell them to stop.

Our electoral system excludes people and ideas from outside of the two major parties and so it is becoming weak from "inbreeding."

Why? The major parties are too close in ideology, and politicians are fearful of challenging the status quo. Structural barriers exist to keep challengers to the two parties from full and equal participation. The US political system blocks out new participants and ideas.

For example, Ralph Nader is ignored by both parties and the press as much as possible except for the systemic problem he, or other significant third parties/candidates pose, and so are tagged with the negative label of being "a spoiler." There are many unnecessary obstacles to getting on the ballot in states. He will likely be excluded from the presidential debates again as he was in 2000.

The problem lies with an electoral system that seeks to exclude more than two candidates. It does not lie with Americans who are committed enough to want to run for the highest office.

To understand the political "inbreeding" I am referring to, look not only at the two major candidate's backgrounds to see how demographically identical they are, but also look closely at Kerry's stances and you will see that they differ very little from Bush's.

This is a symptom of a political system that is sick from breathing the same stale air for decades.

We need a recognition that we are on the wrong track as a nation and as a society that tolerates the killing of thousands to fulfill our geopolitical aspirations.

We need fundamental electoral reform, and a restoration of checks and balances upon the Executive Branch of the US federal government.

We need to restrain our military and intelligence forces, cooperate on an international level, and reach out to create positive relations between the West and the World.

We need Something Better.

Perhaps this Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy will help us achieve it.

Check them out, and send your thoughts.

Universal