The Cocktail Party: Official 2012 Endorsements

Having recently come to the realization that political endorsements are more about promoting the endorser than the endorsed, The Cocktail Party would like to offer the following thoughts on the upcoming election.

1. We endorse voting. It is your right, your responsibility, and your privilege.

2. We endorse making an educated choice. Your vote will affect the course of our nation, our lives and (said with no sense of irony or egotism) the entire world for many years, if not permanently. Understanding such weighty choices takes time and effort, but our nation is worth it.

3. We endorse voting on facts rather than fears. If it sounds too good OR too awful to be true, be extremely suspicious. (When in doubt, see item 2.)

4. We endorse voting based on the needs of your family, community and country rather than for benefit of politicians, corporations or their attendant media shills.*

5. We endorse approaching the voting process with reverence for the importance of the act and with gratitude to those who, in the past and still today, in myriad ways, strive to protect our Democracy.

6. And finally—what the heck—we endorse Michael Barnes for Albany City Council. (Here's to shaking things up!)

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*The Senior Member of the Yummish Council – a staunch advocate for voting reform – maintains this can be done only by voting a straight ticket of “None of the Above” on all candidates and measures, until a multi-party system is allowed to be established. For the Yummish, as a rule, it is hard to reject the concept of “more parties,” and we are thus willing to consider his point.