Rugs. Pulling. From. Under.

Politics is not a fun game to play. In fact it's quite irritating that you can actually win with skills that seemingly have nothing to do with the game at hand. Looking nice, or having the most campaign money win you the presidency sooner than having a good story or a noble nature.

What's worse is that politics often involve you, even when you're not playing in that game yourself. For instance you could try to shape your career as best as possible, and your manager is trying to help you with that, but your boss blocks it, because his interests are best served by blocking the manager's.

That last one is the worst. Not being able to do anything, apart from acting like a petulant child, and just being thrown around between two raging bulls.

I vow to be in the position where I choose which games to play, or be played in.

If I ran a political party...

• you could only vote if you took an exam first; and you MUST have a high school diploma
  
• traffic is caused by people who can't drive; they must be cut off at the source; anyone who cannot drive (e.g. 60 km/h on the highway; parking halfway in two spaces) will have his driver's license revoked permanently;
• Anyone from foreign countries wanting to work here, fine. But you're getting paid in air miles.
  
• television stations are disbanded in favour of tv on-demand, and a surprise channel (Nederland 1 will work for this)
  
• organized religions are taxed 80 %; if you want to show your religious colours (put a fish-sign on your car, wear a kabbala or a headdress etc.), you can obtain the right to do so for a 50 % tax hike. Doing so without paying tax? Ask yourself what happens to you if you stop paying normal income taxes...

It's probably best for me never to run for office...

I know what you should vote!

I think you can do away with all these stemwijzers, and vote analyzers (like stemwijzer.nl). They try to help you make up your mind which party to vote for, but in the end it doesn't matter: no matter which party you vote for, there's no single party that can fully bring to bear their entire party program (when they finally get to rule). There's simply too much to choose from and eventually no single party can get the majority. Eventually the government will consist of a combination of different parties, and all party programmes will be watered down significantly.

On the other hand the two-party system as active in the US is not good either, since the Republicans and the Democrats keep each other in a deadlock. Or they have to trade one activity for another, and so governing becomes not much more than playground economics. You remember that? trading one big marble for several smaller marbles? That big one shiny sticker for the other one that you don't already have?

Next week in Holland by all means vote with your gut. Don't listen to party rhetoric. Don't follow the advice of the stemwijzers. Think about who do you want to place in power, who do you trust enough to represent you? You don't always get what you want (I sure didn't the last few years), and contrary to what Mick Jagger says, you don't sometimes get what you need. But you're making a statement.

Discuss.