We need hard working honest politicians running for office. Politics is the business of keeping our society functional, keeping it clean of poverty and crime. Our politicians are not concerned with these priorities. They hardly work for these goals. Their motivation is severely wanting when it comes to ending war and poverty, taking environment friendly steps, and providing better education. This boggles my mind. What is the reason behind their ineptitude when it comes to doing the work they are supposed to be doing? Politicians are responsible for the state of our society. We have had democracy in place for a century in most of the planet. We have had democracy in this country for over two centuries. Yet our current state of society is this. Why is that? Democracy is the opinion of the people. I am sure that people do not want this.
Unless they have no choice. Which they do not. This is because we are forced to choose between two major parties, who periodically provide us with candidates that continue to play the same political game (get rich, spread our sphere of influence, subsidize business, spread our sphere of economic influence, and other similar political games such as overthrowing foreign governments, banning gay marriage, budget cuts on education). These politicians do not get any work done.
Our political system needs to be improved so that any person can run for election. Thus, if I feel that I am fit enough intellectually, and ethically to run for office, i should be able to run without needing a major party banner representing me, or without the funding of major corporations (which i can get by lying to them). If this is the case, then in every election we will have good, hard working, intelligent people well aware of the global situation running for political offices. Their advertisements will show their knowledge and will easily win over the intelligence starved population.
One probable way of funding these candidates is through federal support. In this case, we will have to limit the number of candidates running with this fund. So we can have qualifying criteria decided by the voters. Criteria such as amount of education (number of years spent in college, number of books/papers written, reputation among the intelligent circle), level of awareness on the state of the planet can suffice.
These candidates can use the money to advertise themselves. They will not be using political jargon that keeps our population in a state of illusion. They will speak clearly and objectively about issues at hand and ways to solve them. I think this will be a good thing for the country.
This is a very ideal view of how our representatives should carry on.
If you've seen Bill Maher's film Religulous, you'll remember this exchange well.
MAHER: Could it possibly have been Adam and Eve 5,000 years ago with a talking snake in the garden? Could it?
PRYOR: Well, it could have possibly been that.
MAHER: Come on. This is my problem, because I'm trying -- I mean, you're a senator. You are one of the very few people who are really running this country. It worries me that people are running my country who think, who believe in a talking snake.
PRYOR: You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though. [Video cuts to Maher then cuts to Pryor whose smile disappears as he stares at Maher.]
You're spot on--we do need intelligent people running for political office. I think you may be attacking this from a very difficult angle, and although your ideas are very passionate and well-meaning, I'm not convinced federal funding of elections is entirely solvent. If you believe that solving issues at the federal level of government is where things get done, why don't you also advocate more public involvement in the process (voting) and accountability (writing senators, citizen lobbying, making documentary films about your issues, etc.)?
I believe many projects start at the local level of city and state government. It's much easier to make officials responsive, because they are your neighbors and in most cases, they experience many of the same inadequacies of society. What do you think?
my documentary...
"some folks say that a hippie won't steal,
but I caught three in my corn field"
--John Hartford
Because Green Underbelly touched perfectly on federal spending for campaigning, I'll leave that subject to him and instead turn to your generalization about politicians.
Politicians are not evil. Politicians do not spend time, money, and energy on campaigning to make their constituents' lives miserable. Instead, they do everything they can to please their constituents so they can be reelected. If this is greed, then our founding fathers depended on greed to run the US, because they created the two-year and six-year terms in Congress and the four-year executive term to hold politicians liable to public opinion. Politicians are very well educated and very passionate about politics--hence their chosen occupation!
The US has always had a two-party system; however, we haven't always had the same two parties. It is possible for a third party to come into power, but if it does, it usually ends up replacing one of the two current major parties. Our current Republican and Democratic parties have not changed recently because we don't really need them to change; both are taking positions on all issues presented. Anybody can run for election. You just have to gather enough people to support you. If you can't, then it's assumed that you don't have a better agenda than the Republicans or Democrats already. The first step to losing this two-party system, then, is not money (which can't force voters to vote for you) but a new election process without, for example, an electoral college.
Careful with your generalizations. It's common to bash America and politicians, but they do not deserve all of the heat they get.
the political parties dont have any agendas. they blubber some stuff to make idiots like you feel like they are being listened to. politicians say the things idiots like you want to hear. its pretty easy to please idiots like you, because you are so dumb all you understand is 'gas prices', 'higher wages', 'better economy', 'freedom', 'protection'. you dont pay attention to anything thats said in between these keywords. neither do you have any idea how these politicians will go about achieving these things, which they dont do anyway.
saying that our politicians work for the people is a blasphemy. the people are in a miserable state. they are devoid of life, death murder violence crime are constantly in their face, they breath polluted air and hear negative news. our politicians DO NOT work for the people. our founding fathers wanted a state that will make them rich, nothing more.
And I thought the cynics of Ancient Greece were entertaining...
my documentary...
"some folks say that a hippie won't steal,
but I caught three in my corn field"
--John Hartford