America's Next Presidential Candidate!

I listened to a bit of the debates, and it was a pretty miserable experience. Whatever one thinks about politics, it's hard to deny that the current system really sucks. The endless campaign, the excruciatingly boring cattle show debates, the primaries all jumbled together in one big blur. The interminable debates with their stupid questions are just one symptom. As one of my continuing series of proposals for reforming the process, let me present an idea for an improved primary system.

We probably need to have a series of debates, but let's put in some human interest. Reporters always ask stupid questions, so let the debaters ask each other - make it a more pitted struggle. Initially, each candidate would get to ask a couple of questions, of, say, two other candidates. A lottery could be arranged so that each candidate gets the same number of questions (four in my example).

So far, so boring, right? It still looks like a miserably incremental approach. so let's take a page from television reality shows. Audience participation is the key. After each debate, let the television audience vote one candidate off the stage. With Mike Gravel and Duncan Hunter gone, the quality is already improved. Tension would build from debate to debate until the climactic week when each party selected America's Next Presidential Candidate.

This scheme might also relieve the Candidates of some of the burden of raising vast sums of money - with luck, commercials for deoderants and erectile disfunction pills might pay the bills. If these primaries became too popular, a series of regional competitions could set the stage for the big national showdowns.

All in favor?

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