Talk:Political movement
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In mid-August, 2005, User:Fenice nominated this article to be a Wikipedia:Collaboration of the Week. Presumably, the nomination failed, although I could not find any record in the archive of failed nominations.
In early September, 2005, I came across this article on Wikipedia:Most wanted stubs and began making edits to expand it. I welcome collaboration! Mamawrites 11:59, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
PROPOSAL FOR AN ELECTION EXPERIMENT
This may not be the proper forum for this, but I will state my 'idea'/'proposal'
anyway, and see if anyone is intrigued by my reasoning.
I hold the opinion that it has been a very, very long time since we, the citizens
of these United States, have truly and honestly been represented by our so-called
'public servants'. While it can be said that a certain small percentage of any
given area's population is well and generously served by their elected officials,
(at the financial and social expense of the area's 'common', unconnected
citizens),for the most part, our elected officials are motivated by three basic
principles: get power, keep power and use that power to gain wealth, for themselves
and for those of like mind.
I assert that the vast majority of voters are poorly served by the 'powers that
be', in all areas of their daily lives. It is obvious that many 'public servants'
define themselves as being those who are served BY the public.
This sad state of affairs is the result of simple mathematics. If one determines,
in any given area,(ie. city, county, state and federal),the total number of
citizens who are qualified to cast a vote, one finds that perhaps 50%, more or
less, of that number are actually registered to vote; further, in any given
election, one finds that typically between 50% - 60% of those registered don't even
bother to make the effort to actually cast their vote(s). Thus, all that is
required to win a 2 person race is 51% of the votes actually cast, effectively
meaning that a mere 26% of the total number of citizens qualified to vote are
determining who is elected. In a race of more than 2 contestants, the percentage
needed to win becomes even lower than 26%. It is a puzzling mystery why the 2
political parties, the Dumbocrats and the Retardicans, continue to strongly resist
the establishment of additional political parties, though one sees occasional use
of 'shill' candidates by both major parties.
So, I propose a little experiment, to be conducted in both the smallest, local
level elections, (ie. town, city, county, township, village,etc.), as well as in
the larger level elections, (ie. state and federal), an experiment which is
designed to accomplish several goals and answer several questions,(besides the
obvious one, of seeing if enough people/voters will get off their butts and choose
to participate in this experiment!).
Basically, my question is this: what would happen if enough voters choose, in every
election, both primary and general, to cast their votes by adhering to the
following rules, completely disregarding all factors commonly used by voters to
make their decisions on who to vote for, and simply casting their vote(s) by
applying these rules/formula:
- 1) Determine which candidates are the INCUMBENTS and DO NOT vote for any of them.
- 2) If there are only two candidates running for any given office, all that the
voter MUST know is which one is the INCUMBENT, then vote for the CHALLENGER candidate.
- 3) If there are MORE than two candidates vying for a given office, determine if
the incumbent is listed FIRST, and, IF THIS IS SO, then vote for the challenger
candidate who is listed LAST.
- 4) If the incumbent is NOT listed FIRST, then vote for the challenger candidate
who IS listed FIRST.
- 5) If no incumbent is running for office, always vote for the LAST candidate
listed.
Remember to COMPLETELY DISREGARD all impulses to concern yourself with the specific
persons who you are voting for and/or the specific persons you are not voting for
and/or the specific incumbents who will, should enough voters in any given election
participate in this experiment, be losing their jobs. Also, issues don't matter,
policies don't matter, individual candidates' personal charm/attractiveness does
not matter..................... nothing matters other than adhering to the 5 rules
above.
If enough voters in any given election participate in this experiment, the result
should be that a whole lot of incumbents will be voted out of office. What
reaction(s), on the part of politicians and their cronies, will this stimulate?
If enough voters CONTINUE to participate in this experiment during the next several
election cycles, thus keeping any specific person from holding office for more than
a single term, will those non-politically connected individuals who would like to
sincerely serve their fellow citizens by holding public office, but have determined
that their chances of being elected are slim-to-none, now find that they have a
reasonably decent chance of succeeding in holding public office?
Will the 'professional politicians' eventually find other lines of work and abandon
trying to gain and hold power over their fellow citizens, (since it's difficult to
establish power,influence and control in just a single term in office)?
Will the majority of those citizens who do gain public office now be honest,
ethical, hard-working and intelligent individuals, who seek office to actually
serve the electorate, (since the traditional motivations of power, influence and
wealth will effectively no longer be available)?
Will these new, honest candidates, now encouraged to run for office, alter the
usual dynamics of 'campaigning'? And in what ways?
As the reader may surmise, this experiment is designed to disrupt the decades-old
flow of bullshit, which has passed for so long as democracy; bullshit both by the
politicians and bullshit by the voting public's failure to effectively participate
in their own governing.
The above experiment should be conducted in all political contests; Administrative,
Executive, Legislative and Judicial.
The rule to remember is: WHEN IN DOUBT, VOTE THEM OUT.
The 5 rules above are designed to mathematically ensure that the maximum number of
votes are cast in such a way as to be effective in denying all elected officials
more than one term in office; to prove, by the only means those smugly in power
ever understand, that the voters actually determine who holds public office, and
that those presently holding said office(s) have, for way too long, held the vast
majority of their constituents in contempt, evidenced not by their words, but by
their deeds.
To paraphrase one of our past presidents, who once said:
- You may fool SOME of the people ALL of the time
- You may fool ALL of the people SOME of the time
- But you cannot fool ALL of the people, ALL of the time
The sad reality is that you need only to fool just the right number of people, at
just the right time, to attain power.
