So Who's Ready?

NOTA

Published on October 6, 2008 By OckhamsRazor In Politics

I've been reading a lot of articles on this election thing. Man, there's plenty of them. And there seem to be five types of people.

1. Liberal whackos who would vote liberal if a convicted serial killer was running on the democratic ticket.

2. Conservative whackos who would do the same exact thing in reverse.

3. People who are voting republican because they can't stand democratic ideology.

4. People who are voting Democrat for the same reason in reverse.

5. People who admit that both sides are FUBAR and wish there was an alternative but see that there isn't a viable one.

Hey! I'm a #5 and have been for years. Are you all ready to join the NOTA party?

I think what bothers me most about this is that it sets everyone at everyone else's throats. Here we are, all Americans (you other country JU's know what I mean...I'm not ignoring you, I'm just addressing my kin as a whole), and we wonder why American Spirit has no meaning anymore. Well, let me sneak a clue under the table to ya. It's because there isn't very much of it left. Both of these parties have repeatedly divided us. We're no longer a team, and it seems the only time we can muster the courage to BE a team is when some rapscallion flies an airplane into a building killing thousands. (Or fill in your favorite catastrophe here ___________) We need to be a team BEFORE things like that happen. If we were, maybe they wouldn't happen!

C'mon folks. Just like the current financial crisis, our (as a whole) problem is us. We aren't very neighborly anymore. There are exceptions, of course, but when I was a kid, people left their doors unlocked all the way down a street because neighbors looked out for one another, partied together, their kids played together, etc...and it is not that way any more. Out on our streets while driving, people are mean. Dudes in hot rods with their windows down and their systems up have no regard for other drivers. Ok, I'll stop the litany of public behavior...but you know it goes on. In general, Americans tend to disregard other Americans.

Our political system is supposed to support the voice of us all rising up to say who we want to represent us. But that isn't happening anymore, and it hasn't for quite a while. Now we are divorced from the entire populace of potential candidates. We are divorced from it because party politics is now also big business. In other words, if *I* happened to be the best person for the job in some objectively substantiated way, I wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of reaching the white house unless I was a republican or a democrat. We're in a noose of our own design, and too many people just turn away when the word "change" is mentioned in the same sentence as their own name.

I wonder what would happen if election day came and not ONE person anywhere showed up to vote. Ok, silly fantasy, but I enjoy thinking about it. Indulge me. Because I have what seems to be a secret.

Come closer.

No....closer.....

THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vote "None of the Above" in 2008.

Comments (Page 2)

EL-DUDERINO

on Oct 07, 2008

There are some constitutional issues to be considered, for example, who is in power during the time the NOTA vote wins by a landslide and new candidates must be produced for another election? Do we just maintain the status quo? That would violate term-limits.

As far as the presidential race goes in the event of no president being elected by the inaguration date of 1/20/09 the power would fall onto the president pro-tem in the Senate. Currently that person is Robert Bryd of WV. There is some mild precident for it, back when John Adams (the first one) was president some folks wanted him to declare the election that would declare his successor invalid so that they would have to have another election and in the meantime the Presidency would fall to the President pro-tem which just happened to be a member of the same party as Adams. However Adams never liked the idea of political parties so he didn't do it.

EL-DUDERINO

on Oct 07, 2008

Agreed on both counts. Politically speaking, good ideas have no retail value, and while I don't mind if some rich dude makes it to the WH on his good ideas, I don't think that lots of money causes good ideas. We're missing a whole crop of people with good ideas simply because they aren't rich enough to compete. That's the problem in a nutshell.

And this is why there needs to be serious campaign finance reform. We need to have some sort of legislation put in place that equalizes the playing field. Make all elections funded out of a centralized fund that anyone can donate to with no limits on the amount that they can donate. That money is then split up evenly out to anyone who meets the minimum requirements to run for a given office and chooses to run for that office. This would eliminate the influence of special interests and lobbying groups from the election cycle as they wouldn't be able to donate to any one specific candidate but rather a large general fund used by everyone. There also need to be new rules on advertising for a campaign because this onslaught of negative ads seems to get worse each election cycle and annoys me to no end. But to be honest I think if you level the financial playing field for the candidates the negative advertising would be lessened on it's own since the campaigns would have to be more frugal with their finances. Leveling the financial playing field would also enable third parties to have greater access to get their message out, which is why this plan will never pass because the one thing that Dems and Repubs can agree on is keeping third parties out of the system.

OckhamsRazor

on Oct 07, 2008

That money is then split up evenly out to anyone who meets the minimum requirements to run for a given office and chooses to run for that office.

Out of curiosity, what would "minimum requirements" be?

EL-DUDERINO

on Oct 08, 2008

Out of curiosity, what would "minimum requirements" be?

The minimum requirements to serve in office are defined in the constitution.

Heh, a card carrying Klansman from the whitest state in the nation.

Sounds like a good deal to me, lol.

In fairness he hasn't been a member of the KKK for quite a long time and has since stated that he regrets ever being a part of the Klan.

SH80

on Oct 08, 2008

Both of these parties have repeatedly divided us. We're no longer a team,

We seem to be in a "civil war" of words and actions between the republicans and democrats. Personally, I'm weary of all politicians and the political system as a whole.

Vote "None of the Above" in 2008.

Sign me up!

OckhamsRazor

on Oct 09, 2008

Haha. Wish we didn't My dad called yesterday to let us know he'd be in town today (should be here in a half hour or so.) Wants to park his motor home in front of the house so they don't have to rent a camp ground space. Bad timing. They'll be here all weekend, so no weekend for me

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