HC -
My figures will be slightly (or a lot) off here but my guess is that unless something REAL dramatic happens in world or domestic events we can expect the following from the coming election:
- 50% or less of americans will vote, and reform will be urged.
- 10-20% of that 50% will use their vote to protest in some way, thus guaranteeing diluted results , and reform will be urged.
- Unfathomable amounts of dollars will be spent campaigning, because it's a "necessary business" in our economy, and reform will be urged.
- Incumbents will have the advantage of "face time", and reform will be urged.
- The two-party conventions will be meaningless entertainment for the faithful, and reform will be urged.
- The two-party platforms will be, as is traditional, totally ignored by everyone including themselves, and reform will be urged.
- The two-party structure, regardless of winner, will spend more time setting the stage for the NEXT election than the one being waged now, and reform will be urged.
- All previous Campaign Finance Reform measures will either be neutralized or ignored, and reform will be urged.
- The electoral college will be lurking in the wings just in case things start not going the way they should be, and reform will be urged.
- Closed primaries will prevent registered members of a party from voting for a better candidate from another one, and reform will be urged.
- The electorate will be told, again, that it is unpatriotic and unwise to "change horses in the middle of the stream", and reform will be urged.
- Candidates will make mean and untrue statements about one another, then make friends again in the interest of "party solidarity", and reform will be urged.
- 463 Democrat presidential candidates will do everything in their power to obliterate the character of their opponents in a circular firing squad, and reform will be urged.
- Whichever presidential or congressional candidates end up winning will be essentially irrelevant, and reform will be urged.
- Vocal minorities on BOTH sides will or will not, indeed, "bitch like hell" regardless of the outcome, and reform will be urged.
- There will candidates riding buses and having town meetings, and no reform will be urged.
- There will be debates wherein popular candidates are excluded by unelected gate-keepers, and reform will be urged.
- The results of the election will, somewhere, be predicted (based on the computer models of unelected gate-keepers) on national TV in error before polls have closed, and reform will be urged.
- Hanging chads will resurge as a major barrier to american democracy, and reform will be urged.
etc.
We COULD change this, if we want to. We either won't, or can't.
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