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11 February 2017

Reality Elections

The recent decision by the D.C. U.S. District Court in Level the Playing
Field et al  v Federal Election Commmission ordered the FEC to reconsider the
evidence presented by the plaintiffs that by keeping all presidential
candidates but the Democratic and Republican Party nominees out of the
Presidential Debates is discriminatory and vitiates the supposedly non-
partisan role of the Commission on Presidential Debates in the U.S. election
process. The plaintiffs state that this allows our Presidential Elections to
be dominated by two private organizations in violation of the objective of
the U.S. Constitution to establsh a free and neutral process of democratic
government.

Why wouldn’t a non-party-organized political system be any more immune to
manipulation than a two-party system?  As shown by Donald Trump in 2016, it
is possible to manipulate the traditionally inactive electorate by mobilizing
unsophisticated voters who respond to the type of publicity techniques that
sell reality TV shows.  Freeing the presidential election debates of control
by the two parties risks making them vehicles for demagogues.

The election of Donald Trump (or for that matter the Democratic nomination of
Hillary Clinton) was a failure of the Republican party adequately to vet its
candidates.  The parties were supposed to be the screening tools for our
elections.  Instead, they have become captives of the career ambitions of
their members.  The money that buys the outcome of their nomination process
would also determine the outcome of a non-vetted competition.  If we cannot
improve the evaluation procedures of the two parties and somehow remove the
monetary advantages of political careers  then we have no choice but to
abdicate control of the political system to dome benevolent dictator—Big
Brother here we come.

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