Sun 19 Apr 2020
GRADUATING FROM THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
When faced with a ballot that offers two choices, neither of which are meeting your own expectations for ethical and democratic Leadership, oftentimes you must choose “the lesser of two evils,” as the old saying goes. But, in this age of enlightenment wherein information is readily available at our fingertips, and electronic amazement is happening all around us, there is a way that this problem might be solved.
We each come to our philosophic and political persuasions through our life experiences, and perhaps with the influence of those teacher-leaders whom we admire and respect, as well as the information that permeates our world and is almost blasted at us through the corporate media. Since the invention of the radio, then television, we are literally being inundated with information, or in some cases, mis-information. We’d really have to make a conscious effort to avoid these media, which, of course, is almost impossible to do. The volume is even increased when advertising comes on, because, you the viewer/listener may be going to the kitchen or the bathroom during the break, and the advertiser doesn’t want you to miss a word.
This is so contrary to little more than a hundred years ago, when all of the information that came to your attention had to be researched…there was your local newspaper that you had to make the effort to read in order to glean any information…or go to the library, etc., but the responsibility was yours…to actively search out information; a far cry from being the passive receivers that we are presently, wherein we’re inundated with “TMI”..too much information!
This very availability puts us in touch with round-the-country and round-the-world matters, some of which we had no knowledge previously, and once we KNOW, we cannot UN-KNOW. Therefore we have multifaceted concerns…with war, with the ecology, human rights issues, with discrimination, with labor issues, with worrisome religious extremism, for instance. These concerns that become part of your wish to make productive changes have no REAL effective outlet on the political scene. You can campaign! Pass out flyers! Join a protest! You can speak at a city council meeting, but in a two Party Political system you have little voice!
If my concern with the ecology, for instance, prompts me to work with the Green Party, and we are even able to get our candidate onto the Ballot, we’re not at all likely numerically to win but we hope to make a good showing and make a point! BUT, meanwhile, if we vote for a 3rd party candidate, in this two party system, we HAVE ACTUALLY ERODED the cumulative power of the party most favorable to our concerns. And this helps the opposing party to win!
An easy solution to this exasperating problem can be found in establishing, nation-wide, a TWO-PART VOTE..wherein we can still vote Green to make a point, but the vote would feed INTO the party most amenable to our concerns. Like: Green/Democrat. If there would ever BE enough Green votes, then, it could prevail, but meanwhile it will NOT ERODE the Dems.
This will work “across the aisle,” and Republicans might favor this change, as well. One could vote their wishes also, such as: Right To Life/Republican or Right To Bear Arms/Republican!
So, WHO will be creative and patriotic enough to place such a Bill in Congress? Would it get any proponents? If not…then, maybe we could ask for a Presidential Decree? Let’s give it a try anyway! Short of the almost impossibility of changing the system, we can tamper with it!
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