As a card carrying member of the “blogosphere” i feel that it is my sworn duty to attempt to drive traffic to my site during the election day rush. So I fully intend on plugging political tags into this post. Anthropological training here is kicking in so i guess i should identify my bias. I am a US citizen, independently registered as a non affiliate. I do not support either party, i think the republicans on whole are to conservative and heavy handed when it comes to religious overtones, and i think the democrats are too pro union and heavy handed when it comes to playing the race card. I abhor the typical negative campaign ads, not only because they are slimy dirty tricks with no oversight concerning fact checking but rather because they are all of that and too far reaching. They should be targeted. I don’t need to see election promises from new Jersey, which we all know my feelings about that state, but rather i would like to see positive campaign promises from the people I can vote for. Also Both parties save their nastiest and dirtiest ads for being sponsored by the party as a whole, not to be linked to a candidate.
Just a small aside. I live in a largely democratic area, republicans are few and far between, my wife being one of them. Both of us have moved twice in the past two years, both of us have checked the update my voter registration box, She even changed her name. Yet my voter information was in the correct ward her information is still under her maiden name and in the ward from two years ago. Disenfranchise the republican minority? She also seems to get called for jury duty a bit more as well.
The thing that steams my carrots the most about this whole system is the lack of simple logical laws to prevent certain problems from arising. First off, term limits, no one has ever been able to prove to me that someone can do a good enough job and not become complacent in his or her dealings with 30 + years in office. Secondly, pass a law forbidding candidates from mentioning the current administration or other candidates in their ads or campaigns. It should all be about what you stand for and what you don’t support. Why should i vote for your sorry ass as opposed to the other guy. I don’t like voting based on the lesser of two evils. Thirdly each candidate gets can only spend a set amount of money on the campaign, the bigger the area covered the larger the budget given. Third party candidates should be able to apply for government subsidies to run their campaigns, and reach their target budget. Probably mostly pipe dreams but with a little work we can make democracy mean people’s rule once more.
By the by, most of us either don’t understand the electoral process or know that it is inherently flawed. How is popular vote good enough to pick every other elected official but El Presidente? This is a flaw. This needs to be addressed.
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