PTA: Parent, Teacher, Asshole

What's Really Embarrassing About American Politics

Today's newspapers carried the final vote counts from the November 7th election, and it was kind of disheartening. I don't mind being out-voted, except the election system is poorly set up...

Ok, before I go any further, let me say this...I love the United States and even when the government and heads-of-state seem to be doing a crap job (and I'm thinking Clinton here...), I still love this country. You'll never hear me say "FUCK IT! I'm moving to Canada!"

And I'm not a Dubya hater. I can't say he's been doing a great job, but I also don't think he's an embarrassment to the country.

And I'm not a party man...I don't vote only Republican, though they tend to get my votes, and I don't refuse to vote Democrats, though I don't frequently vote for Dems, and I don't consider voting for a third-party candidate to be a waste and have voted third-party before.

Which is where my problem with the election system that I see comes in. See, I voted for more Democrats this year than any previous year. It's not because of disgruntlement with the Iraqi War or gas prices or anything like that...it's because when I sat down and read what the prominent issues were for my state and what the candidates said about these issues, I liked a lot of the Dems' responses. Rarely does that happen, and I have to take some things with which I don't agree, but for the key issues the Democrats seemed to have more of the better answers...this time.

And only one Dem won...

...

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Well, it's South Carolina...I love this state, but with it comes some baggage...namely traditionally Republican electees.

So my question is...do South Carolinians vote for Republicans because they really agree with what the Republicans are saying every single time and are always happy with the results every single time...or is it something "Pa always said...vote Republican..."

and that concern is where my election reform comes in. It's to easy to go in, vote straight party without looking at all at whom you are electing. So toss that function out...that's phase one. Did I tell you there are 3 phases to my election reform? Sorry...There are 3 phases for my election reform proposal.

Phase one...No more straight party option: Sure people can still go through and pick all Republicans or all Democrats...but it's not as easy and some people, forced with actually picking a name rather than a party may do a little more research.

Phase two...Platform and positions on key issues provided in the voting booth: By removing the straight party option, hopefully people will realize they are voting for people, not parties...now make it easy for them to decide by providing the key information one where the candidates stand on key issues. Also make sure you include all Independents. You should still encourage people to follow debates and listen to speeches...but some platform cliff notes can help and can easily be done. After all, a similar thing is done with laws and amendments up for a vote. But people can still go through picking only D's or R's without reading the cliff notes, which brings us to...

Phase three...remove party designation from the ballot: Now you can't just blindly pick Dems or Pubs. Well, ok, you can if you memorize your party's candidates' names...But hopefully people will be looking more at names...people...rather than parties. I'm not talking about a total removal of political parties in American politics...just this one place...the ballot. It'll help even the playing field for third parties who don't get as much news. I mean, there were like eight different candidates for the Superintendent of Education position and the only two discussed were the Pub and Dem candidates...not the Green or Libertarian or any of the other party candidates.

I wonder if someone has the statistics on straight party votes. I'm sure it's out there somewhere...and I'm sure it's embarrassing...more embarrassing than Dubya with a pretzel stuck down his craw.

posted by Bodog @ 9:20 PM