Bush or Kerry. There are some who would like to portray the two as some kind of choice. To the discerning political observer, however, it is just more of the same: more deficits, more spending and more big government propaganda revolving around two people who think they know how to run the nation and spend our money better than we do.

Republicans have nothing in Bush. The Bush administration’s discretionary spending has exceeded the Clinton administration’s — not including the additional $200 billion spent on the unnecessary war in Iraq. Containment was a fine policy for Bush Sr.; one has to wonder why Junior did not realize why his father didn’t see it fit to go to Baghdad in favor of a U.N.- approved containment policy.

Some say that they support Bush because Kerry is a liberal. Look at the following acts and tell me if they are that of a conservative.

• A $1.2 billion loan to the U.N. for HQ renovations
• Agreements with India and Mexico that accelerate the export of jobs
• An enormous Medicare prescription drug plan that balloons the already enormous social program
• A budget so packed with pork that even the GOP’s favorite whipping-boy, the National Endowment for the Arts, made out with more than $103 million in funding
• Taking control of education from states, cities and communities with Bush’s “No Bureaucrat Left Jobless” education policy.

We are languishing amid a half-trillion dollar deficit when we should be enjoying a $5.6 trillion surplus, and it is not for lack of “conservatives” in Washington. The Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for our budget woes, but rather than take the blame and take charge of the situation, they pass the buck to terrorists and a bad economy. That is not leadership; it is cowardice or ignorance — take your pick.

Kerry is no better of a candidate for the presidency. In fact, the decidedly liberal American Civil Liberties Union has yet to be very impressed with him. Kerry voted against the ACLU when it comes to welfare reform, federal funding of religious institutions, Internet censorship, campaign finance reform, medical records privacy, national ID cards and federal wiretapping procedures. So, even if Kerry could manage to balance the budget, he is still a jeopardy to our civil liberties.

It appears pretty clear to me that the Republicans and Democrats have left their primary constituencies out in the cold. The Republicans were supposed to keep the government out of our wallets, and the Democrats were supposed to keep the government off of our backs. So what went wrong?

It is no wonder that people are revolted with politics when they think that these are their only two choices. A person can choose the lesser of two evils only so many times before he or she gets disgusted with the whole process and simply gives up.

I heard someone talking on the bus the other day. He said, “I don’t like Kerry, and I don’t like Bush. I’d vote for a third-party candidate, but I would just be wasting my vote.” I cannot imagine how many people might say that this election and simply choose not to vote. Could it be 30 or even 50 percent of young adults registered to vote?

That would explain why only 32 percent of registered young adults vote. Now, think if all those disaffected voters chose any or all third- party candidates. It would be an overnight political upset! Millions of votes being “wasted” on third parties would be a wake-up call to the major parties that they had better start catering to our interests or get used to losing elections.

What ever happened to voting our conscience? Whatever happened to defiance in the face of adversity? I am disgusted, too, but, rather than capitulate to the two-party American system, I choose to fight it!

It is not much, but my vote is my voice, and I will not use my voice to support a candidate that I do not believe in.

This year, I will vote for a third-party candidate and send, at least, this man’s voice to Washington in defiance of a political system that does not represent the values I believe in, support the issues that I want supported or fight as valiantly as my candidate for president, Michael Badnarik, does for causes that I fight equally as hard to establish.