AFS Cinema
Electoral System Needs to Change
RECEIVED Tue., Aug. 12, 2003
"Of course Gore ran an inept campaign. ... And of course Gore was a corporate compromiser," (Michael Ventura, "Letters @ 3AM," Aug. 8).
Ventura then launches a lengthy assault on Nader's "refusal to admit" and his "doctrine," climaxed by the pathetic "George W. Bush and Ralph Nader are twins separated at birth."
Ventura won't think outside the little box that has been constructed to contain us. "No Green Party candidate can win the presidency in 2004; but for the Democratic candidate to prevail a substantial number of Greens must vote Democratic." How simplistically partisan!
We don't vote for candidates; we vote against them. When the majority does not vote, as is typical, they're voting against all the "choices."
The problem has very little to do with the individuals who run for office – it's systemic. Ventura should know this, since he points to Arkansas and Tennessee as evidence for his rant against Nader and Green voters. The electoral college is an anti-democratic process that is used by politicians within our one-party system to nullify the votes of many while pacifying people like Ventura and directing their attention to blaming scapegoats.
Bush and Gore are far more similar than Bush and Nader. To argue otherwise is laughable. But getting Bush out of the Oval Office won't change the direction in which we are headed. There are plenty more like him to plug into that powerful position. Our electoral process enables them. They learn to play the blue-and-red electoral college game we get to watch on TV.
Democratizing the electoral process is not a quick fix solution, but choosing between the lesser of two evils is no solution at all. To learn about alternative voting methods that have the potential to democratize the electoral process, a good start is the excellent research at www.electionmethods.org.
Ventura then launches a lengthy assault on Nader's "refusal to admit" and his "doctrine," climaxed by the pathetic "George W. Bush and Ralph Nader are twins separated at birth."
Ventura won't think outside the little box that has been constructed to contain us. "No Green Party candidate can win the presidency in 2004; but for the Democratic candidate to prevail a substantial number of Greens must vote Democratic." How simplistically partisan!
We don't vote for candidates; we vote against them. When the majority does not vote, as is typical, they're voting against all the "choices."
The problem has very little to do with the individuals who run for office – it's systemic. Ventura should know this, since he points to Arkansas and Tennessee as evidence for his rant against Nader and Green voters. The electoral college is an anti-democratic process that is used by politicians within our one-party system to nullify the votes of many while pacifying people like Ventura and directing their attention to blaming scapegoats.
Bush and Gore are far more similar than Bush and Nader. To argue otherwise is laughable. But getting Bush out of the Oval Office won't change the direction in which we are headed. There are plenty more like him to plug into that powerful position. Our electoral process enables them. They learn to play the blue-and-red electoral college game we get to watch on TV.
Democratizing the electoral process is not a quick fix solution, but choosing between the lesser of two evils is no solution at all. To learn about alternative voting methods that have the potential to democratize the electoral process, a good start is the excellent research at www.electionmethods.org.
R.H. Sanders