Real Campaign Reform
Real Campaign Reform!
We need to get the two major parties out of their lock on power.
The best way to do that is simply by removing their labels from the ballots and disallowing them the use of public money and facilities and public employees in their primaries.
No private club membership or endorsement has any place on any ballot. It’s basically an advertisement to put a party affiliation next to a candidate’s name on a ballot. All right, so the democrats endorsed Obama and the republicans endorsed McCain. So what? Perhaps the VFW and AARP will endorsed McCain and perhaps Planned Parenthood and the Black Panthers will endorsed Obama, but should they have gotten advertisement spots on the ballot for that as well? The ballot is there for the people to vote based on their own personal choices, not for the parties to advertise their endorsements. So take the Rs and Ds and Ls and all the other party tags off the ballot.
Secondly, let the parties have their own primaries using their own voting machines and their own property, and hiring their own election officials if they want them. Their choices are not the public’s business and the public’s time and money shouldn’t be wasted helping the republicrats continue the farce if trying to make people believe the primaries are part of the legitimate election process.
THE PRIMARIES ARE PRIVATE CLUBS’ BUSINESS, NOT THE PUBLIC’S!
If they want to allow the public to vote in their primaries, fine. But they should have no official power and no legal standing to get or demand information on the voters, which also means they have no way of determining if anyone is voting in the other clubs’ primaries as well as theirs. If someone votes in a club to endorse a candidate, whether it’s the republican party, or democratic party, or the Rotary Club, it’s none of the others’ business to know. I imagine that would lead to the parties opening their votes to only paying card carrying members, but that is as it should be. And that wouldn’t prevent anyone from joining multiple parties and voting in all of their primaries. But so what? If you are a member, you should have your right to vote. Of course, the republicrats don’t want that, they have most of the public fooled into thinking they are part of the political system, but they aren’t.
It’s time we stopped that game and put them on their on.