Here’s What’s Wrong With the U.S. Electoral Process
I have one very big issue with the way we go about electing presidents in this country. We always pick them from the same political petri dish.
Governors or senators, or former governors and former senators...and even then, only some of those former governors. Only some of those former senators.
Anyone outside the mainstream might as well be swimming upstream, and when it comes to getting any debate exposure, they might as well not be swimming, at all.
It's sad. Because it guarantees the same old bunch, and guarantees the same old talking points.
Sometimes it's the candidates you don't hear about, who are the candidates you should be hearing. After all, what harm would it do?
Sometimes those outside the consensus crowd have a grasp on the issues the consensus crowd does not. Yet the powers that be -- in both political parties -- don't give them the chance.
They set the bar so high to participate in debates, that invariably these outside candidates can't even get in these debates.
Some are cut off if they don't score at least 20, sometimes even 25% in the polls... as if those polls are fixed in cement.
They're not, they change.
But God forbid other candidates get the shot.
Now there are growing calls in both parties to change the rules, and lower the threshold that determines who plays in a debate, and who does not.
They're still kicking around the numbers, but I'm told they will be much lower than the poll levels we use to decide these things right now. I say, long overdue.