Instead, only two candidates will have the opportunity to address the public via radio and TV -- the two candidates from the two political parties that have delivered us into our current international, national, state and local train wreck. One Democrat. One Republican. That's it.
You won't get to hear anything from the candidates from the other four bona fide political parties registered with the Secretary of State, namely: Chelene Nightingale of the American Independent Party; Laura Wells of the Green Party; Dale Ogden of the Libertarian Party; and Carlos Alvarez of the Peace and Freedom Party.
Why do we tolerate this duopoly of political power, especially given the consistently abysmal results these two parties deliver?
After all, according to the latest statistics from the Secretary of State, a whopping 20.2% of us -- including yours truly -- are "decline to states." We're not wedded to any political party. The number of "decline to states," moreover, has nearly doubled since 1994, when they constituted 10.3% of the registered voters.
Don't tell me the other candidates aren't worth listening to merely because their parties are small. They haven't had the opportunity to pitch their ideas to you. Plus, more and more of us -- the "decline to states" -- aren't sold on either of the two parties any more. Neither one of them is consistently advocating a bundle of policies we find acceptable.
Let's start having real debates, with all the candidates. Let's start giving those "little" parties the opportunity to grow their numbers. If we keep doing the same old thing -- namely, listening only to candidates who have raised millions from special interests or who have spent millions from their own bank accounts -- we're going to keep getting the same abysmal results.
And the first words out of the mouths of the local news "anchors" (that's what you drop in the water to hold your boat in position) afterwards was "who won the debate?" - won? define won! Who dodged the most questions, who gave the most non-answers, who gave the fuzziest answers, who gave the most non-relevant answers, .......
ReplyDeleteLet's take another survey - how many people in California actually watched the full hour? Of those who watched the full hour, how many were swayed to change their position on whom to support? And finally, if given a choice of only these two candidates, how many voters now want to vote for "none of the above" on Nov 2?
Personally, I feel that I can't trust either of them. As Meg says, if Jerry follows through with having the Big Four in a meeting, the unions will ALWAYS be a fly on the wall controlling everything. As Jerry says, being a corporate CEO does not qualify one automatically to run a political office - you can not fire the legislature, you can not fire department heads, you don't get to write performance reviews and set goals as governor.
I heard Ms. Nightingale on the radio earlier this evening and I really liked what she had to say about how to make changes - example: she doesn't like the CARB and the way it rules by decree with no controls, so she would remove each of the members (within the governor's perogative) and either not replace them or replace them with individuals more in tune with the rest of California - now that's clear thinking about how to approach making changes in Sacramento.
I also heard Ms. Wells rant earlier about how important it is to support "green jobs" (assuming you can find one!) - WOW - you can tell she's not concerned about the thousands who will lose their current jobs if Prop 23 fails.
These are some examples of why it is vital that all candidates be heard throughout the state - to terminate the straight party ticket voting. The two major parties have gotten us into this mess and continuing to support them blindly will never solve our problems.
Thanks Walter. That needed to be said. The corporate media has frozen out the alternative parties in an effort to limit the voters choices.
ReplyDeleteThank YOU for reading and commenting. Sometimes I wonder if there's any point in my ranting about thing. When other people take the time to say "right on," it's encouraging.
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