Friday, October 29, 2004
A severe overhaul needed
The US system for electing a president urgently requires a severe overhaul. Something is desperately wrong when Messrs Bush and Kerry are the two best candidates for the position of the most powerful political leader on planet Earth. There may, of course, be a far better candidate further down the ballot, but because of the system, which is all to do with backroom deals and big money, that person will never get a look in.
How come it is impossible to get a unified voting system for a Federal election totally eludes me. No other country allows individual states or provinces to design their own ballot papers and voting procedures, does it? This is madness.
Then we have the litigious brigade out in force. Tens of thousands of lawyers have been hired and are primed to clog the courts with protests over the voting (they've already begun lodging their suits). Americans will be lucky to know who their new President is before the next election comes around.
If Kerry wins, it also has to be asked whether any President can now be more than a one-term President? Each President seems to bequeath to his successor a successively greater intractable mess -- economically, politically, socially and spiritually. I suspect that many of those lauding Kerry now will be baying for his blood in four years time.
No matter who wins, I fear for America, and am scared to imagine what this nation will look like next time round.
The US system for electing a president urgently requires a severe overhaul. Something is desperately wrong when Messrs Bush and Kerry are the two best candidates for the position of the most powerful political leader on planet Earth. There may, of course, be a far better candidate further down the ballot, but because of the system, which is all to do with backroom deals and big money, that person will never get a look in.
How come it is impossible to get a unified voting system for a Federal election totally eludes me. No other country allows individual states or provinces to design their own ballot papers and voting procedures, does it? This is madness.
Then we have the litigious brigade out in force. Tens of thousands of lawyers have been hired and are primed to clog the courts with protests over the voting (they've already begun lodging their suits). Americans will be lucky to know who their new President is before the next election comes around.
If Kerry wins, it also has to be asked whether any President can now be more than a one-term President? Each President seems to bequeath to his successor a successively greater intractable mess -- economically, politically, socially and spiritually. I suspect that many of those lauding Kerry now will be baying for his blood in four years time.
No matter who wins, I fear for America, and am scared to imagine what this nation will look like next time round.
