One of the candidates, from beginning to end, has been treated as if he were delusional. If he were delusional that would make sense. The problem is his proposals have been implemented successfully in other countries and when experts analyze them, his policies are at worst neutral and in most cases beneficial. These policies were treated like a racist and sexist madman were proposing them. Over and over again, he proved he was neither of those things. To make it worse, the Democrats were facing someone who is legitimately a racist and sexist madman so they should have seen the difference. Over the course of the campaign, Bernie Sanders became more and more popular. and while this was going on his candidacy was ignored by both the Democratic Party and most of the media. How did they go about doing this?
One, they attempted to manufacture controversy that never stuck. Two, the party would communicate things to the Clinton but not the Sanders campaign when they were required by their bylaws to communicate with both. Three, they scheduled events in such a way that Hillary's message was more likely to get out than Bernie Sanders's. They negotiated with the media to give less coverage to Bernie. The party instructed poll workers to give independents false information in open primaries and caucuses. They purged voter rolls in closed primaries, usually claiming incompetence. These are the things we can prove just from the campaign. On top of that, the leading candidate was investigated for something criminal and escaped prosecution by the skin of her teeth. Others have been convicted of similar actions. The events leading up to the lack of prosecution look very suspicious and republicans will likely beat her over the head with it. There was also a pattern of exit polls not matching the outcomes of elections which is a big red flag that voter fraud has occurred. On top of that, A Stanford study showed Clinton did better in states where there was no paper trail for the voting machine. This is not a smoking gun but is very suspicious and should not happen.
Now let's talk about how the media portrayed Sanders. The media kept reporting votes that had yet to take place, specifically the super-delegates. They would treat Sanders as delusional then ignore him. They would treat every victory he had as a fluke. and to make it worse they focused all their energy reporting on Donald Trump, a man whom many in both parties consider dangerous and incompetent.
So what can be done about any of this? Very little can be responded to before the election. currently the Democratic party is being sued for violating their bylaws during the primary. Joining that class action lawsuit would at least create consequences for what they did. Barring Debbie Wassermann Schultz from holding office would be nice but unlikely to happen. Many of the other problems we have seen are more systematic. One, we need campaign finance reform in our country. Bribery is commonplace. And it means the interests of the majority of Americans are ignored.
Next, is our voting system Almost every race in our country employs something called a first past the post voting system. The idea being whoever gets the most votes wins. The problem is this voting system can be very easily manipulated by restructuring districts (Gerrymandering), trounces voices outside one or two major brands (spoiler effect), and discards the voices of most of the votes. Our presidential election is even worse. A candidate can win with 22% of the popular vote. In other words a candidate can receive 78% of people's votes and lose. There are other voting systems available. my favorite is something called Single transferable vote, or instant runoff voting. The idea is instead of voting for one candidate you rank the candidates with a cutoff point, usually the number of votes divided by the number of positions open plus one. A proportion of excess votes of winners go to second choices and the biggest loser transfers to their second choices until there are the correct number of candidates left. It maximizes the likelihood that one of the winning candidates is one you actually voted for or are at least comfortable with.
Our tax system is arcane. It contradicts itself and allows for massive abuse. Companies regularly do their banking offshore to avoid having profits taxed. that would be understandable but those taxes are what we use to pay for government services like the military and roads. Speaking of roads, ours are falling apart. A majority of college graduates are in massive debt. People go bankrupt from medical expenses. We have debtors prison in our country again. Cops shoot innocent people and do everything they can to avoid consequences. The government will not pay for poor people to defend themselves in court. And the list goes on. and more and more it looks like both Democrats and Republicans are doing everything they can to avoid solving these problems. If we try to look for an alternative they point at the other one and say that is what you will get if you vote for a third party. You see why we are frustrated?
So what can be done about any of this? Very little can be responded to before the election. currently the Democratic party is being sued for violating their bylaws during the primary. Joining that class action lawsuit would at least create consequences for what they did. Barring Debbie Wassermann Schultz from holding office would be nice but unlikely to happen. Many of the other problems we have seen are more systematic. One, we need campaign finance reform in our country. Bribery is commonplace. And it means the interests of the majority of Americans are ignored.
Next, is our voting system Almost every race in our country employs something called a first past the post voting system. The idea being whoever gets the most votes wins. The problem is this voting system can be very easily manipulated by restructuring districts (Gerrymandering), trounces voices outside one or two major brands (spoiler effect), and discards the voices of most of the votes. Our presidential election is even worse. A candidate can win with 22% of the popular vote. In other words a candidate can receive 78% of people's votes and lose. There are other voting systems available. my favorite is something called Single transferable vote, or instant runoff voting. The idea is instead of voting for one candidate you rank the candidates with a cutoff point, usually the number of votes divided by the number of positions open plus one. A proportion of excess votes of winners go to second choices and the biggest loser transfers to their second choices until there are the correct number of candidates left. It maximizes the likelihood that one of the winning candidates is one you actually voted for or are at least comfortable with.
Our tax system is arcane. It contradicts itself and allows for massive abuse. Companies regularly do their banking offshore to avoid having profits taxed. that would be understandable but those taxes are what we use to pay for government services like the military and roads. Speaking of roads, ours are falling apart. A majority of college graduates are in massive debt. People go bankrupt from medical expenses. We have debtors prison in our country again. Cops shoot innocent people and do everything they can to avoid consequences. The government will not pay for poor people to defend themselves in court. And the list goes on. and more and more it looks like both Democrats and Republicans are doing everything they can to avoid solving these problems. If we try to look for an alternative they point at the other one and say that is what you will get if you vote for a third party. You see why we are frustrated?
