Sunday, July 15, 2007

Democrats: Seeing the Forest

Everyone's heard the old saying, "you can't see the forest for the trees." It's already happening with the Democratic candidates for President.

Let's fast forward to a Clinton Democratic nod... Throwing the current mostly useless polls aside, what happens when a Hillary Clinton is running as THE Democratic Presidential candidate?

I've never seen anyone who can polarize people more than Hillary Clinton. Personally I like the idea of Hillary as President because all the scandals become about Bill's sex life again, and that makes for much better jokes than dead soldiers. Unfortunately I don't think even the most progressive of the right wing will consider her a viable candidate, so there goes 30% off the top. Assuming there is an opposite minded 30% out there (those that would aggressively support Hillary) that leaves 40% unaccounted for. The real question... what would they do?

Now let's talk about Obama... same story really 30% of the die hard rednecks would never vote for a black man (no matter how white he seems). Then there's that opposite 30%, and were back to the 40% unknown. I really have a hard time with Obama because I can't decide if his naivete makes him a better or worse candidate.

So I'm left with only one conclusion... they need to both drop out for the good of the party and country, and throw their combined impressive political clout behind Edwards... yep... really.

Corporate Political Takeover

So it seems it's ramping up to yet another election year and the field of mostly unimpressive candidates is filing by doing their level best to convince you out of your vote. The problem is the entire process is rigged!

They are saying what they think you want to hear to get elected, while the real winner will be the one that is making the right deals behind closed doors to assure their corporate sponsors they will be taken care of after the election.

Corporations have co-opted the electoral process here in the US. The politicians have only two real jobs to do now... get reelected and take care of their sponsors. It's not rocket science to figure out who the politicians real constituents are... just follow the money.

So how do we take back our electoral process? There are two things that need to change and they need to change now! First, it's time to put mandatory term limits on every elected office at the federal level. Secondly, all federal elections need to be financed through public funds.

When it comes to the subject of term limits, the reelection rate for incumbents is ridiculously high no matter what they do (or don't do) while in office just because the voters know the name. Now it could be argued that mandatory term limits only serve to protect the voters from their own ignorance and laziness for not deeming it important enough to know who and what they're voting for, and I would agree. However, I would defend the voters a little by saying that most of them don't believe their vote matters, but they are at least making the effort anyway.

If no private funding of political races were allowed we suddenly benefit in a couple ways. First, the candidates currently serving in public office know exactly how much money they have to campaign with, and they don't waste the publics time by spending 75% of their time and energy from their first day in office fundraising instead of working. Second, this would break the backs of the PACs and lobbyists by rendering their existence useless. Third, the current political system has created extremely high barriers of entry explicitly due to the amount of money or political connections needed to enter into it. This is no longer a government of the people, for the people, and by the people... it is a government of the rich people, for the rich people, by the rich people.

It is time to take our country back from the rich who have stolen it... really!