I’ve been pounding away on the adoption advocacy front for a very long time, but still raw from the recent flaying I’ve decided to commence a brand new campaign for the betterment of humanity for the time being … today, anyway.
Having left the US in 1993, I’ve missed a lot, and I am nowhere near up to speed on aspects of Americana ranging from breakfast cereals to presidential candidates. The pack, both Democrat and Republican, is a confusion of Who dat?, and You gotta be kiddin’!, but the process does put me to pondering all things democratic and the processes that are said to add up to democracy.
I well recall researching a paper on the Electoral College about 35 years ago and coming away from the project convinced that it had seen its day. Lo and behold, however, it lives, and continues to drag its rotting corpse all over the election process of the new millennium.
With that mummy apparently propped in place and not easily budged, I would like to propose an idea that would make all the difference in turning democracy into something that would really mean what it is suppose to mean. In one swell foop and with simple implementation, the people … THE PEOPLE (in big letters) … could be guaranteed true representation in every government in the world that now has reasonably free and fair elections.
Ready for it?
Every category on every ballot would have one simple addition:
None of the Above
If “none of the above” wins, it’s back to Square One. Yes, it would be an expensive exercise, but only until those in positions of power take a good look at the sack full of nickels that hit them upside the head and stop jerking us around.
The idea orginally came to me in the ’80s when i found myself in New Orleans covering the gubernatorial election in Louisiana that pitted a convicted criminal against the head of the Ku Klux Klan.
Imagine never again having to mark your ballot for a lesser of evils. Think of the process of choosing candidates that would have to consider a total rejection of all party favorites or “best chance to win” creeps no one really wants to see in office. Consider the power that would come with a vote that said in no uncertain terms, “We are tired of this nonsense, and we’re not going to take it any longer!”
And that is my thought for the day. Feel free to discuss this and get back to me with your assessments.
I think it’s a fab idea, and one we should make happen.
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
I realize that politics is an ugly business – I spent a good deal of time in it. My time in politics began when I got fed up with the overabundance of politicians and underabundance of John Does involved. I ran, I took 35% of the vote against an incumbent, lost, then became a party activist and leader.
If more John Does got involved in the process instead of ignoring it, we could change the face of “politics” and make it “government” as it should be.
Unfortunately, the average American (the guys and gals we need in politics to change it) don’t want to be bothered.
As for the electoral college, that is part of our Democratic Republic and was created to insure against an uneducated/uninformed public. Sadly, our public is less informed now than they ever were. I’m rather thankful that we don’t have a true Democracy here in the US. Otherwise, Snoop Dog just might be president.
I rather like the current bunch of presidential candidates! I recommend Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope” – the man is much more intelligent and complex than one might guess from seeing his debate performances and interviews. No thanks to the mainstream media on getting the facts out there… as usual, they go for the simple tag line and call it a day. The candidates have to dumb down their positions to get coverage from the media, it seems. I do think the average American is sadly uninvolved and uninformed, but I blame the media for much of that.