At least Mark Swaney says interesting things. Watching that dumb parrot commercial made me wish some of that would rub off on our other U.S. Senate candidates.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor and Republican challenger Rep. Tom Cotton are locked in a race that could decide which party presides over the self-styled "greatest deliberative body in the world." So you'd think the two would have plenty of interesting things to say. Then you turn on the TV and watch a parrot make splat on a newspaper.

Swaney is running for the Senate, too. He opposes the death penalty, to cite one interesting opinion. Ask him why and he'll quote Albert Camus' "Reflections on the Guillotine." Yet this Green Party nominee is no ivory tower Fayetteville professor. He's a mechanical engineer whose job is administering the University of Arkansas' research patents. He makes the university some money.

He moved to Arkansas decades ago because he thought it would be a good place to raise a family, and has never regretted his decision.

"They're both reading polls and telling the voters what they think the voters want to hear," Swaney said of his major party opponents. "It's as if voters were talking to themselves in a mirror."

Yet the "mirror" doesn't really reflect well, Swaney said. "Most members of Congress today are millionaires," he said. "Many of those who aren't were millionaires who had setbacks giving them a negative net worth. Even those have access to finance no ordinary person would get."

"Congress is full of people who never had to work or, if they did, it was some time ago and they've moved on," Swaney said. "So it's no wonder working people's issues are not voted on or supported."

Someone should bring those issues up. That's what campaigns are supposed to be for, he said. At the very least, he can do that, he said.

"I've been a practicing mechanical engineer for 25 years, which means I've been dealing with energy in a practical sense," Swaney said. "Ever since the 1760's, when James Watt developed his steam engine, we've been dependent on fossil fuel. Our civilization is based on fossil fuel." He is under no illusions about that -- yet our ability to remain dependent on that source is ending.

"Climate change is the most important issue in this race, in the U.S. and to the species, but no one from the major parties in this race are talking about it," he said. "When someone from a major party brings it up, they say that any tax on carbon emissions has to be 'revenue neutral.' Why? I think there ought to be a tax on carbon emissions that's progressive on the lower class, neutral for the middle class and revenue bearing for the wealthiest." Those without the ability to pay should be taxed less and those with the ability should pay more, but the net effect should be an increase in revenue, he said.

If we're going to address the federal deficit by increasing revenue, he said, why not address it in a way that also helps preserve the habitability of the planet?

Nobody ever said "sin taxes" on liquor and cigarettes should be "revenue neutral," Swaney said. If your goal is to change behaviors, being "neutral" won't work.

"If we were in a position to take the lead on this issue, we could put on diplomatic pressure," Swaney said. "In these trade agreements we have, we could say 'If you don't cut your carbon emissions, we're going to put a tariff on your goods.'"

"This is Arkansas, where we're dependent on agriculture and therefore uniquely threatened by change in the climate," he said.

That's not an easy concept to get in a 30-second commercial, but that's not the type of campaign he's running anyway, Swaney said. "I don't have millions of dollars and loads of time," he said. "I'm a working person with a 40-hour-a-week job. I can't campaign 24-7."

"The only important political power most people have is to vote," Swaney said. "They should take that responsibility and use that power. If you vote for the lesser of two evils and the candidate you vote for is elected, then you should take some responsibility for what that candidate does."

So if you vote to send one of two members of a major party to go to Washington and butt heads -- or if you don't vote at all and let that happen -- you bear some blame. "It's not just me putting them on the spot by running. So does life," he said of voters.

I don't think Swaney has a chance of winning the election. I suspect, though, that he'd be a clear favorite for giving the most interesting speech.

DOUG THOMPSON IS A POLITICAL REPORTER AND COLUMNIST FOR NWA MEDIA.

Commentary on 06/06/2014