Re: Who Would You Like to See Run in 2008?
Oh, I wasn't saying that you would. I was just merely pointing out my own thoughts on the matter. She might be tough and such, but she's really a bit too liberal for mainstream America, and I fear that she might be elected solely because she's a woman, and not based on what she stands for
Yeah, definitely. I think the problem with it is not so much the tallying & counting of votes (as well as how those votes count towards electing the President), as seems to have been the problem in recent years. Truth be told, America is really a republic, not a democracy, so the electoral college is one of the facets of this formulation.
Really, though, my problem is more so with the parties and candidates. First, the quality of candidates of late seems piss-poor. Maybe it's because we know more about them than in the past (whether because of media revelations or accusations by the other party or citizens). Also, the whole process starts wayyyyyyyy too early. I remember, in high school, seeing a statistic that showed how campaigning for the election, even as recently as the '70s, didn't really begin until a couple of months before the election (that would be August, September, even October years ago). Since then, however, it's escalated to the point that, now, one year removed from the last election, we're already discussing candidates for the next President, and sometime next year, politicians will begin declaring their intentions to run and you'll start seeing ads for "____ '08."
Back to the issue of party politics: we've got 2 huge parties right now that, together, represent both views on any number of issues in political and social life. If a new issue gains attention that a "third" party (the Greens, Libertarians, etc) has advocated in the past, the Dems or Repubs will gobble up either side to the issue. Third parties are effectively rendered useless in national elections. It's unfortunate because too many people will say "I'm a Republican" or "I'm a Democrat," or adhere to their ideologies (conservative, liberal), and refuse to look at and evaluate each issue for themselves as it presents itself. That produces millions of people who might know where they (and, of course, their party of choice) stands on a particular issue, but they might not quite know why. So I'm essentially stating that our two dominant political parties are making America and Americans dumber in the political realm.
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