flacaltenn
Diamond Member
let me begin by saying this is not a criticism of Donald Trump, but of folks like The Koch Brothers.
while rich folks don't announce their intentions on the front page of newspapers, their goal is clear. they want to move America into an oligarchic form of society in which all economic and political power rests with a handful of billionaire families. they want to make it impossible for ordinary americans to improve their lives. tragically, they are succeeding.
we must make our choice. we either have democracy, or we have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
Money is pretty much over-rated in politics. When you have such poor choices, NO amount of money is gonna fix that. Trump showed you don't need focus groups, ad consultants, tons of cash. You need to know HOW to get coverage. Even if the coverage is sometimes ludicrous.
Imagine what principled, focused people could do to run cheaper campaigns that work. There are endless possiblities. ONE is just promise to END the senseless mind-numbing warfare between the Dems and Reps by electing folks that want BOTH parties -- out of town by High Noon...
I think candidates should be given free air time to explain their plans and we should have many debates, all funded by tax payers. No campaign donations. No attack ads. All criticism of opponents should be made at the debates or allotted air time and must be made by the candidates themselves, not others who have the message approved.
This way, anyone can run even if they aren't wealthy or have connections with wealthy people.
Would be difficult at a national level. Because you DO need to show organization and effort from supporters to weed out the kind of 87 candidate free for all that elected Schwarzenegger out in Cali. I still have a copy of that ballot. 3 hookers, 2 pro clowns, 4 or 5 crystal worshippers, etc. $26 got you on the ballot. That's TOO democratic..
In terms of Prez races -- if you can't get ON the ballots -- there's nothing to "debate". The 2 parties will block and oppose ballot access every way they can. So ANY party that gets on enough State ballots to THEORETICALLY win the E-College --- Should definitely be in every debate. The Greens and LParty were there. Took us all our money and energy to get THAT far. LParty made EVERY ballot. Greens made "most" of them.