it's an invasion army!

I have always said that campaign finance reform would be an excellent step in the right direction to more inclusive and fair elections. Get rid of the special interests and the money. Even out the playing field. and let's get some real candidates--not shadowy and pale imitations of pathetic party politics.

Primary season is upon us. On a national level I'm really interested in the Lieberman race because he's threatening to run as an independent if he doesn't get the democratic nomination. My hypocrisy was showing Wednesday night when a conversation I was having with my sister was overheard by someone. I was urging her to vote in the primary (she's from Conn) for whomever Lieberman is running against as "Lieberman is barely a democrat and will most likely split the vote with the republican leaving the door wide open for the democratic nominee." Here I have been preaching the glory of including more than 2 parties in the process and yet I'm so quick to play the game.

This led to a conversation last night about primaries and what the hell is the point. Doesn't the primary process do a bangup job of excluding any possible 3rd parties? Why can't people-regardless of their party affiliation--just run? It was also pointed out to me that the inclusion of party affiliations on ballots is kind of stupid as well. Shouldn't people be voting for the best candidate regardless of what party they belong to? Doesn't having a straight party ticket ballot just encourage people to continue to be apathetic about their choices? Don't we just encourage lack of participation in the process by continuing to narrow our options? The inclusion of primaries pretty much guarantees voter fatigue--as if we don't have a hard enough time keeping their interest. And shouldn't Election Day be a national holiday? Shouldn't we remove all possible obstacles to what is the most important civil act a citizen can participate in?

Here's the rub:

We have an apathetic voting public to begin with. Now we're asking that they not only vote (the horror!), but that they research each individual candidate. Aren't we just asking for less people to vote if we take away their nice 2 options--their 2 categories? Democrat or Republican? Liberal or Conservative? People will have to actually think about the individual running not their party affiliation if you remove that from the ballot, let alone if you remove straight party options. As far as Election Day being a national holiday: would it actually encourage people to vote or would it turn into yet another national holiday surrounding copious amounts of alcohol and grilling slabs of meat?

Oh woe is me! I have yet another post where there are more questions than answers. What I do know for certain is that the 2-party system as it stands must change. Including more people into the process only fosters competition which is good for everyone--electorate and candidate. Campaign finance reform is necessary. Changes to the primary system would be helpful (does anyone really understand how that works anyway?!) and making election day a national holiday would probably be a good idea as well.

Alright, people.
Make it happen.