How We Can End The Two Corporate Party System In America

DUMB AND DUMBERER. It is not the movie that I am referring to. It is our ultimate choice for leadership as American citizens.

We once reveled in the freedom of having choices as members of a once-free democracy.

Then, as we grew complacent and permitted our human right to education to be taken away from us, we succumb to ignorance, and now we find only confusion in having choices. We gave away our responsibility to be informed, our most important responsibility in a democracy, and we gave it away to the people who narrow the choices FOR us, those who exercise the real power in this country.

And as we become less free, have you noticed that we are being offered less choices?

While we still have a Vote, use yours to make sure we have as many choices as we can.

At this very moment, states from sea to shining sea are contemplating legislation that will make it even more difficult for independent and third party candidates to get onto and stay on the ballot, let alone run along side the two corporate party candidates we tolerate every few years.

While we still have a vote to cast for ourselves, use yours to stop these measures from passing in your state! Keep the option of having alternative choices and ideas other than the ones corporate media wants us to adopt.

DID YOU KNOW? It used to be legal for more than one political party to support a single candidate. This practice was known as voting fusion.

Fusion voting was once ubiquitous in the United States, legal in every state of the union. However, with the rise of relatively powerful third party and independent political movements in the late nineteenth century, state legislatures dominated by the Democratic and Republican parties began banning the practice in order to eliminate alternative choices when their agendas displeased voters.

Today, fusion voting is prohibited in all but eight states. These states (Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, and Vermont) have strong third parties that have significant public support and influence on government policy.

While independents and third parties provide more freedom of choices in these states in an era when the majority of voters are disillusioned with the two corporate parties, states are now pushing through extreme bills and have taken upon themselves to pass legislation trying to stomp out any independent and third party dissent.

Do you despise the politics of division and extremism? There is nothing else when only two parties are fighting to divide us along ideological lines in order to carve themselves a 51% piece of the American pie. When was the last time either major party has run for election with a solution to a problem?

And what is the result of this narrowing down of our political choices?

Gridlock.

Filibuster.

Obstructionism.

Corporate control.

With only two choices, we are constantly being left with voting for "the lesser of two evils" (and really, one or the other corporate candidate) rather than having the government WE want and the policies that serve US.

Why do you suppose the entities who run our country want us to have fewer choices-- do YOU really need an alternative to this?

These laws that are trying to remove independent and third party candidates are actively being pushed by corporate interests who would see their escalating bill for buying elections grow even higher if there were significant independent and third party opposition. While the bill for buying the election may increase occasionally because the third parties are paid off (one of many reasons given for the need to ban the practice of voting fusion), this should not necessarily be considered a bad thing.

Consider it the free market of buying elections. At some point, the price will become too steep, and corporations will no longer be able to buy up every side of an election.

So, by promoting more choices (and public education for the voting citizenry), ultimately, empowering independent and third parties will be the mechanism for breaking the corporate lock on the legislative process, something corporate interests will fight against tooth and nail.

Score voting, AKA Range Voting, is another method of voting that endeavors to keep independent and third party candidates in the game, and may even afford alternative choices a leveler playing field. It removes the "throwing away my vote on a third party candidate" voting bias, and ultimately, it could prove to be the best method of voting that has been suggested yet.

Reforming our voting system to a system like range voting, or restore Voting Fusion in all 50 states may be the first important step towards getting corporate money out of politics and truly making sure that our government serves the interests of its people.

Ultimately, anything that will lead us to a more honest and open dialogue and transparency in decision-making will receive my vote!

What are your thoughts on how to end the two corporate party system? Which method of voting do you prefer: voting fusion or score voting? Tell us what you think, and please share this and expand the discussion!