This has been the ugliest Presidential campaign I can remember seeing and frankly I'm disgusted. I am absolutely fed up with the twisted half-truths, veiled insults, ridiculous accusations, blatant lies, partisan bullshit and general douchebaggery now littering the nation's media. The ongoing rhetoric of hate and divisiveness serves no beneficial purpose and can only serve to cause considerable harm to this country. This toxic negativity needs to end and it needs to end now. It's an insult to any free thinking individual with a measurable IQ, an embarrassment to this country and a total abandonment of the principles and values for which this country supposedly stands.
Our whole political and electoral system has been corrupted and is in dire need of serious change. So, here's my suggestions for election reform. They'll never happen but I'll feel better by writing them down.
- Eliminate The RNC And The DNC.
- In fact, eliminate the parties altogether. Let the candidates fend for themselves since they, not their respective party committees, are the ones up for election. I am not interested in what some committee has to say and I resent having to pay for their election year multimillion dollar extravaganzas with my wasted tax dollars. I'm also sick to death of the nonstop partisan fighting. If our elected officials took even a quarter of the effort they waste on sabotaging each other and redirected it to doing what's good for the country then we'd be in far better shape. This will absolutely never happen so I put it first, call it wishful thinking. The rest of my suggestions are made with the knowledge that there will always be distinctly different parties.
- Fix Campaign Financing.
- Deduct one dollar from every federal tax return filed every year and put that money aside. When campaign season starts all the candidates split it evenly. They can then match the amount they receive with their own money. That's all they get. No more buying the Oval Office, no more special interest groups and fake non-profits contributing millions of dollars, everyone starts on equal terms. How they spend it is their choice. This would also have the effect of allowing for more than two parties to present viable candidates for us to choose from. Currently no candidates from alternative parties have a chance. Without several hundred million dollars to spend they are practically invisible and remain unknown with the end result being we voters ending up with fewer choices.
- Demand And Require Absolute Truth In Advertising.
- No more accusations, misquotes, comments taken out of context, twisted half-truths or any other political garbage. If it is not the 100% truth it can not be used. Period. ALL ads would be reviewed by an independent organization like factcheck.org and mandatory stiff penalties put in place to punish any untruthful ads. Unable to bash each other with bullshit the candidates will have no choice but to tell us about themselves, their priorities and their plans. Imagine that, voters heading to the polls with clear ideas of what the candidates want to do and how they want to do it. Wouldn't that be different?
- Get Rid Of Electoral Votes.
- The candidate with the most votes wins. The one with the next highest amount becomes Vice President. Finally all votes would then count equally. There would also be the added benefit of the VP being the voters' pick, not the candidate's pick.
- Fix The Debates.
- This is a personal peeve of mine. The "debates" are a joke, nothing but a waste of television air time. Why are only the two main parties' candidates invited? Why can't the Green Party send their candidate, or the Libertarian Party? If the debate is for Presidential candidates then all of the presidential candidates should be there.
Next, what's the point of asking a question if the candidate won't answer it? The moderator should hound them until they answer each question thoroughly and with the same standards I outlined for their advertising. Then the debates would finally serve a purpose. If a candidate feels that they can't thoroughly, concisely and honestly state their positions, goals and plans on national tv then frankly they've got no business running for office.
