Right now our elections are about popularity and not competence. Candidates tell you as little as possible about what they think and believe and what they would do if in office. Their campaign slogans are useless since they promise things that they could not deliver, because our tri-partite government (legislative, executive, judicial) provides checks and balances so that no one branch can operate independently.
Since they have no real information about candidates, many voters vote for the party, for the candidate who looks best, for the one who looks strongest, etc. We should arrange elections to get information to all voters about a candidate’s ability and intentions.
We waste enormous sums of money on federal elections, mostly because many candidates try hard to scare voters into believing that only he or she will protect the voter from the opposing party of thieves and scoundrels. I will propose a six-month campaign time (instead of our current one year or more) and will promote a standard amount of campaign money provided to each candidate (while still having opportunity for other political groups to also raise money and put forth information to voters). The point of a campaign should be to inform voters, not to get their votes.
We should elect the person best qualified to do the job well, using an analysis of the duties the job entails matched against evidence that the candidate has or does not have the skills to do the duties. My book A Compassionate, Moderate Political Platform for 2024 provides an analysis of the job of President and describes aspects of my past work that suggest how I might carry out each duty.
Our system of winner-take-all voting does not give the best representation of the will of the voters. I will explore the usefulness of preferential voting, in which voters vote for their first, second, and third place candidates (or more). The candidate with the fewest votes is dropped, and his/her votes are assigned to the remaining candidates, and this is repeated until there is a final winner.
I also believe that an open primary preceding the general election would be better than the current system of party primaries. Parties can select their candidates, of course, but the open primary would have candidates of all parties (including Independents), and the top five or so candidates would advance to the general election.
Vote for the most qualified candidate to be President, not the one with the most publicity.
Seeing a person in the news frequently does not mean that that person is qualified to be President!
Not seeing a person in the news frequently does not mean that that person is not qualified to be President!
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