Let's do away with the current carnival that is the Presidential Election Process. It is time to shorten the campaign season (and I mean dramatically). Wouldn't it be great if candidates were not allowed to raise money, announce they were running, or do any other politicking until the January before the November election -- in other words shorten the whole process to roughly 10 months. The primaries, the caucusing and all that jazz could start up in the late spring and culminate with the party convention landing somewhere toward the end of summer. I understand a key weakness to this "shortened" campaign season would be the way it may give an advantage to a President running for re-election since their name is already out there and probably even a household name . . . but my feeling is that our country has fallen into a damaging cycle of the forever campaign. The most important job for politicians should be governing the country; however, with the ever increasing amount of time and money given over to running for office the most important job has become getting elected.
In this regard it would also make a lot of sense to radically curtail the amount of money put toward campaigning. Instead of elections being won based on how much money is spent by the people running, the amount spent could be limited to the point where the country really does get together around the internet, t.v., radio? to listen to a few content driven debates and/or speeches.
And while we are talking national election -- isn't it about time we throw out the whole absurdity of the electoral college. We are a nation and are electing a national leader. I get the whole small-state-big-state compromise issues that created the bicameral congress; however, a national leader should be chosen by the population as a whole and each person's vote should have equal weight in said election. I know this is all utopian, but this is my little rant . . . and it seems to me the idea of tweaking our system is less utopian than common sensical.
OCCUPY MOVEMENT -- thumbs up! Shocker -- the revolution didn't really happen, but what a wonderful thought. The few times I talked to members of this movement, I was full-on impressed with their sincerity and their wild optimism. The thought/idea that there was still a place in this world for acts of freedom was inspiring to me. I am not a revolutionary. I have revolutionary ideas pop into my head from time to time, but I tend to be pretty much mixed-up inside the world of life and more middle-America than I like to admit. I like to go on dates with my wife, hang with our cats, watch college football, ski on the weekends, or simply slide into vegged out oblivion; however, it makes me feel better about the world knowing that there are people still passionate about trying to change it. Oh, they might be headed in little or no direction but sideways; however, they are spinning their with honesty. In our daily life -- in the diverse societies of American society -- wouldn't it be awesome if we simply found more opportunities, more spaces, for honest to goodness dialogue about the ways in which we function within the world?!
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