Editorial

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We have been inundated with presidential campaigns and the continued expertise of the network media pundits — a process based on emotion for most voters — making it a truly inexact science.

Those talking heads have committed themselves to not only control the flow of information to you, the voter, they have and continue to have an agenda driven to control for whom you cast your ballot.

It could be you are politically active at a high level, either with a candidate or one of the parties. This at times contributes to the wearing of blinders, especially when your candidate is being espoused as the savior of the Free World.

It’s time to open your eyes, remove the blinders, and see things for what they truly are.

First, the election of the president is not truly decided by the people. In the beginning of each election cycle, both parties determine what names will be put out there for the public. The parties decide who you will choose from when the field is assembled.

Once the nomination is received, the pathway to the White House does not run through your living room, wallet or social conscience. The candidates need only win certain states to garner the number of electoral votes needed to be named President, and those electoral votes needed do not run through South Carolina. Win the correct 11 states and one could enter the Oval Office without what could be called a stamp of approval by the majority.

Second, the Democratic and Republican parties ultimately decide who will sit in the president’s chair.

Have you noticed candidates speak less and less about what is good for the constituency they represent and more about what’s good for the party? Pay attention to the details when you review those sound bytes. You may be surprised how often the party is mentioned and how little you are.

Third, you should be asking yourself who is in charge of both sides, discarding terms such as Liberal and Conservative because those are marketing labels and nothing more. Can you name more than one person who is in charge of either party? Is it possible you know even one?

Maybe you should do some research, find out what their backgrounds are, their professions, and most importantly, how they make their money. Let’s face it: Money is what drives the process and is the ultimate goal for most politicians in Washington.

Finally, although your vote is your right and is important, under the current system with the Electoral College, your vote is not worth what you have been told it is.

During the primaries your vote is not cast for a candidate in a literal sense, but instead is actually being cast for electors, those who go the national conventions and cast their votes for the candidates. So, if the threatened “brokered convention” occurs for either side, your vote may amount to nothing.

So how do you fix the system?

The fix is simple but not likely to occur. Here’s how: Do away with the two party system, eliminating platforms and party objectives. Rewrite campaign finance to level the playing field between the individual and the corporate donor. Impose term limits on Congress. And finally, do away with the Electoral College and allow the popular vote to decide, which in a democracy seems as if it would be the natural inclination.

Here, in the words of John Adams, is the prediction of American politics in 2016. Everyone should take these words to heart and consider their import: “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.”

Editorial courtesy of Civitas Media.

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