Election Reform

ELECTION REFORM

Little things can make a difference.?An example can be found in elections and how candidates present themselves to the people before and after they are elected.?In the United States candidates decide what slogans or sound bites to use to get elected.?It’s as simple as “I am a true Conservative” or they come up with slogans about what dastardly deed their opponent(s) have perpetuated.?This is prevalent when discussing gun laws or other themes of the day.?The electorate have none (or little) idea of what the proposed candidate will do if they are elected.?Years ago the League of Women’s Voters sent questions to the candidates to answer so the League could print them for the voters. These were printed in newspapers or in leaflets located in public libraries.?In answering the questions the candidates should propose solutions as needed.?

What if this was done now and placed on the internet, newspapers and polling places??Also, this would be one way that elected candidates could be evaluated after they get in office.?The main problem now is that the electorate doesn’t care if their candidates lie and do misdeeds and/or discriminate.?When societies standards are low you get ineffective governments where everyone blames each other.?This way nothing gets done and the government’s elected officials still gets paid.?Of course voter suppression, meandering election districts and selection of judges?become alternative?tools of reform.?Recently I had to vote for 20+ judges on a ballot and the only thing I had to go on was the ethnicity of last names (which shouldn’t mean anything, but does to certain people).?The henhouse has too many foxes in it using power and greed as weapons.?The public is not getting their money’s worth and it shows the importance of power.?We have to start with election reform to heal ourselves, especially with global warming staring us in the face.?Many unwelcome attitudes have to change for things to get better.?Unfortunately the time frame to do so is getting shorter daily.?This simple reform could make a difference but it means politicians have to put our country first.

A Child’s Political Primer

The political process is something to behold

Just watching as it begins to unfold

The many things you have to do to learn

Is to study politics and try to discern

The rules you need to know to get ahead

And how to be a leader and not just be led

This process has many a precedent

On the way to becoming a president

You may start by being a mayor

Or even a more active player

Male or female, it does not really matter

As long as your hand is not in the platter

The first thing to have to learn

Is what you give and what you may get

So that you become all the more set

To serve the people, the 10 percent

But don’t say this is what you meant

The “American People” is the best phrase

To allow you to get the most praise

The second thing you have to learn

Is that you say one thing and yet do another

And to give jobs to your brother

The third thing you have to learn

Is the study of hypocrisy

This may take all the time that you are there

Or it may come without any great despair

This is the study of being insincere

By telling people what they always want to hear

Education is not a prerequisite for a hypocrite

Because you learn it bit by bit

For there isn’t any difference from where I stand

Because all good works seem to have a brand

This is done in order to stay

Serving the people every day

And the perks increase bit by bit

The longer that you can sit

While in the chamber where you meet

And hope you will not su!er defeat

All of this one can learn

As to how you can return

The art of being a hypocrite does not come automatically

Until you have learned political practicality

If you are new at the game

Others may treat you with disdain

Earmarks you will try to kill

But put it in another bill

Hypocrisy is but a hidden pretense

To promote programs that do not make sense

To insist that your agenda is right

And that the budget is oh so tight

While all along it doesn’t do, what the people wanted it to

The corporations are represented

Because they are being presented

As people like you and I

And of this then we can only sigh

That some day politicians may be

?Just people like you and me

The fourth thing you have to learn

Is stand on principal and not compromise

Because anything else would not be wise

Even thought the principal is weak

And there won’t be allowed even a tweak

You make it appear that you are strong

And that the other party’s wrong

For the party you know is the principal thing

If one votes the other way, against the party line

They might be in trouble in a short period of time

The fifth thing you have to learn

Is the ability to talk and not say a thing

For no amount of reckoning this could bring

An analysis of problems are a concern

That is something you don’t have to learn

Practicing sound bites is quite a chore indeed

How else then can one hope to succeed?

All this learning is costly you know

Money must be spent campaigning in the snow

So the people’s business now takes the back seat

In order that you are the one that they keep

All this learning is an art and a special thing

So no telling than what tomorrow will bring.

?George Hunt

Website: conceptual communities.com

Email: [email protected]