Government and Politics - We Need Election Reform in America

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"Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both." -- James Madison ("Focus" 1)

The United States has strived to be a true democracy, a place in which the citizens are free to govern themselves, since its inception. For a democracy to work, the citizens must remain knowledgeable and elections must remain unbiased. Our current system of electing presidents fails in both of these regards: citizens are only given two choices that stand any chance of winning and their decisions between those two candidates are influenced not by knowledge, but instead by what they have seen on thirty second television commercials. In order to break up the complete political monopoly the Democrat and Republican Parties have on the United States, we as Americans need to reform our presidential elections so that third party and independent candidates have a legitimate chance of holding offices and so that citizens are able to vote on the candidates based on their political beliefs rather than on their ability to fundraise and advertise. Similar reforms should be made to the elections for other offices as well at the federal, state and local levels. The ideas and arguments presented in this paper can be applied to American elections in general although, because of the small scope of this paper, they only speak of the presidential elections.

A candidate cannot legitimately compete in modern American elections without being able to finance a huge television advertising campaign. Commercials have become an integral part of our...

... middle of paper ...

...Democrats and Republicans hold in this country would allow candidates with fresh ideas and new ways of dealing with old problems to take office. Through these new representatives, our government will become healthier and better able to adapt to today's changing political environment.

Sources Cited

Basham, Patrick. "The Illiberal Reality of European-Style Campaign Reform." http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-13-02.html.

Donnis, Ian. "In Whose Interest?" http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi-page/documents/02552297.htm.

Targonski, Rosalie. http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/archive/elect00/primer.htm.

"Focus - Freedom of Press and Information." http://usembassy.state.gov/islamabad/wwwhircalert0702.html

Associated Press. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/e1598.htm.

CNN. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/.

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