By CE Marshall
Chapter 3, The Elections
Establishing a new and innovative approach to selecting leaders that circumvents the need for money in the election process.
Our Government as it stands
today. The best politicians, not the best leaders.
Anyone who pays any attention to our
government and its inner-workings has to be alarmed at the woeful state of our
current leadership. Today we have the
best politicians that money can buy.
Although it should go without saying (but let me say it anyway) that a great
politician does NOT make a great leader. In fact, quite the contrary.
What you get with a great politician is a smooth talker who can sell
anyone on anything but who never actually delivers on any promises. The
politician makes promises he has no intention of keeping., and so the entire
process of electing him is a farce. The great politician is in love with
the idea of power for the sake of power, ie, to stoke his ego and make him (or
her) feel important and above the dim-witted dolts (in his mind) that elect him
or her. His interest in "improving" things applies only in as
much as it can present a convincing case for him/her to be elected. That
is always the point of their running for office. Nothing more. If something is
accomplished and something good comes out of the politician's election then it
is a happy circumstance that we must all marvel at, that "even the losers,
get lucky sometime" as Tom Petty put it.
I read a book recently that had a category for this type of person. The book is titled “Leader Shift”, and
although I didn’t agree with all it said, it did offer up many truths to
consider. In one part it establishes
those who work and what motivates them.
People are motivated by money, power, position and philanthropy. Those motivated by position are known in this
book as “credentialists”. Essentially
they are the people who want to be in a position because they think it’s
prestigious and it’s important to them they “be” something- A congressman, a senator, a president. They become something to “be seen”. They’re egomaniacs. Nearly
all of our congressional leaders can very easily be put into this position. They are, without a doubt, the poster
children for “Credentialists”.
So how do we select the best
leaders from among us instead of the best opportunists (the best credentialists)
? One way NOT to do this is
through the process of parties selecting who THEY want to be our leaders and
then sit idly by while they pick out the best candidate that fits THE PARTY's
views. ( I devote another chapter with a long list of redress against the
party system ) The reason we all know
this does not work is because today we have one of the worst governments North
America has ever seen. Public approval for Congress is lower than 10%,
and a recent poll shows they are less popular than roaches, herpes and
communists. What have we become that such an organization remains in
power despite its abject failure? The last Congress sent our economy to
the edge of bankruptcy and caused a credit down-grade by the world's most
important credit bureau because the two parties couldn't agree on a
budget. Their crowning achievement was approving "In God We
Trust" as the nation's motto. They get nothing done while in
Washington, but they sure are good at staying there.
We don't need any more credentialists”. We need leaders. We need men and women that want to make
things better for our country and our countrymen not for themselves (or their
parties). Like our forefathers, they must be willing to sacrifice. They must be dedicated to liberty for all citizens. They must possess great fortitude and honesty. They must be “above the fray” of political
bickering and they must be committed to the betterment of mankind.
The men that can lead all of us to greater "peace, prosperity
and domestic welfare" are alive and
among us, but they would probably not run for office because they know all too
well that they are not corrupt enough to fit into the mold necessary to win
elections in our country. No, you must
be willing to drop to the level of the more popular cockroaches in order to
gain political power in this country. The
system is not set up to select the best leader like it's set up to select the
best politician. The most ardent
credentialist.
So, today that's what we have in
Washington. A group of self
congratulating, self promoting, greedy, epicurean, partisan, bickering,
childish, opportunistic, small minded, crafty little toads. A full house
of ineffective politicians who think all this is just a game for them to play
in front of the media to make points for their favorite cable TV network. Talking
points for the spin Doctors and their cable TV-watching groupies. Always
the question is "Who had the best "shot" today?" and rarely
is any noble objective to improve things or fix a problem the subject of
discussion except in passing. An afterthought.
An Amendment- Deletion of Money in the Equation of All
Elections
So now
that we've ironed out the main reason for such an ineffective government, there
must be a logical solution to remove this “Credentialism” from the fabric of
our leadership. But, how do we get the
best leaders to the position of leading without netting a bunch of toad
politicians at the same time? We must change how we elect our leaders.,
and the only way to change the way we elect our leaders is to eliminate money
from the entire process. There must be an amendment to the constitution
of the United States of America that eliminates any money being involved in the
process of elections, be it local or national.
I will elaborate later in this book on this necessary amendment, but let
me offer up one possible alternative to infusing our election process with
dignity and honor once again.
A New Process of Elections
So, how can we choose the
best possible leaders to lead our cities, counties, states, and nation without the
parties calling the shots and without money being involved? We have to think outside of the box and
re-arrange this process. We are not hostages to the way things have
"always" been done. This isn't how they did it in the beginning
before our democracy became entwined with the insects that infest it today.
George Washington himself was vocally against any sort of political
party system and even mentioned the topic in his farewell address in 1798,
warning the nation of the dreadful consequences possible with such a process.
(Of this I will elaborate on in my blog on the political parties to come
at a later time)
Here's what I propose to begin the process of winning our country back.
We have to get rid of the politicians. How do we implement such a
plan? In order to draw out the best potential leaders we have to begin
harvesting from existing leadership that is successful. So your
religious leaders, Toastmasters, Kiwanis, business leaders, firehouse chiefs,
any and all local leadership and even military leaders are open to
nomination for positions of local leadership. Once these leaders have
gone through a nomination process from those that know them, each person that
is interested in actually running will begin the process of speaking, debating,
and having their positions and ideas submitted for review through the local
media. No money is necessary because the facilities where debates and
speeches will be located would be at local places for gathering such as civic
centers. NO MORE of these mysterious people who come out of nowhere with
bundles of money to start doing the bidding of their beloved parties.
Only local leadership who have shown what they can do and accomplish for
their fellow citizens as leaders and administrators. Another great
benefit; not all of our leaders will be restricted to lawyers. Why is a nation of shop keepers, engineers,
computer scientists, firemen, policemen, teachers, etc.... being led by this
group of people who chose a profession that prides itself on clever tricks and
abundant mendacity? Is it any wonder our leadership is populated mostly
by a herd of silver tongued rats that seek nothing other than to stay in power
or yearn to earn "real" money as one of those most loathsome of
all snakes known as lobbyists.
What about higher levels of government ?
As each person is elected to a lower level of government then they
qualify for the next level of government.
There would be no way to go higher unless you have served at the lowest
level. With this requirement you will always be getting the best of the
best as you go to a higher level. In theory, within about 30 years we
will have a fully effective and efficient President who has demonstrated
through years of work and dedication to his people that he is essentially the
most talented leader in the land. How can anyone argue against such a
circumstance?
I know there are details about all this that
would need to be worked out but the details could be hammered out according to
local custom and preference. As long as the structure is there that all
leadership nominated must start at the very bottom levels, and that no money is
needed, necessary, offered or required. It would strictly be the people listening
to the candidate and voting on exactly what he or she thinks and believes. His or her composure. His or her experience as a leader, and his or
her position on the concerns of the governed. Nothing else. In
other words, all elections are no longer funded by anyone at
all. Most people I mention this to are totally confused because they
(and all of us) are so use to elections costing as much as a billion dollars
(IE, for the presidential election for 2008 even more for 2012 !).
But why does it cost that much? Because of media advertisements.
Television commercials are the bulk of it, but also newspaper ads,
political signage, mailers, etc..... The overwhelming majority of the
expenses for campaigns are for the marketing. Why is marketing
necessary? It's not if you look at the election process from a
different perspective. Think about it, all citizens need is the
following to make an educated decision;
1) To hear each candidates opinions on all
major issues of the day in their own words
2) To hear the candidate speak in an
address to their constituents as to what their vision is for the future.
3) To read a list of each candidate's
opinion on all the major issues of the day.
4) To hear the candidates debate each
other in a moderated fashion.
5) To read and understand each
candidate's qualifications/resume. Much like a job interview., "What
about your experience makes you qualified for this leadership position that you
desire?".
6) Any and all prosecuted crimes to be fully
disclosed. Any and all matters that have fallen under the eyes of
the court in the past, including divorce, etc.... are to be fully disclosed.
None of this requires all the marketing
nonsense we are constantly exposed to. All that's required is the
following; 1) Publication of these points listed above via the media
2) Public buildings for the speeches and debates. 3) A
process for selecting the nominees that will yield the best possible people for
these positions.
No money required.
How would a
Convention of States help to solve this problem ?
The way that
COS could help with such a concept is that an amendment could be advocated that
forbids the use of money to run for election.
Obviously the entire process would need to be outlined within the
amendment to express the process and the intent of the amendment itself. This could tie into the entire convention as
a new Article that outlines the problems we have currently as part of the
process of election and the new process would be dictated along with an outlaw
of any political party. People can
extract what they want to know from the person’s intentions and they are free
to label themselves as they see fit, but any formal group forcing “group think”
as part of the election process would no longer be permitted. No political parties.
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