We can walk into any corner drug store and plop down a dollar and get a lottery ticket that employs several independent verification checks, not to mention a registration number on each ticket sold, but we can't seem to develop a similar verification system at the ballot box. This cannot be an accident. Implementing an accurate, verifiable voting system makes it harder to tamper with.

So go ahead, drool over the media's spectacle of the Iowa caucuses. Feel the blood rush to your cheeks when you see your favorite candidate look into the camera and cry or smile on cue, it really isn't going to make any real difference in the end.
As long as we have a voting system that is unverfiable, we have no true democracy.

ex animo
davidfarrar
The National Online Party

"Let's tax the middle class" is the only real policy Congress seems able to agree upon. So in this campaign season with all these debates and online mash-ups going on, maybe we can slip in this question: How come the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) can't seem to tax wealthy Americans with bank accounts in the Cayman Islands but has no problem going after upper-middle-income families with lots of kids who happen to live in high-tax states?

ex animo
davidfarrar
The National Online Party

I am tied about the media's obsession with Iowa and the primaries state. We can land people on the moon but we can't seem to develop a modern primary system. Everybody knows this nation needs a primary system that will allow the electorate a fair opportunity to be exposed to more ideas and ideologies than just the front-runners and what the mass media want us to hear.

For the record, I am tired of our present primary system and believe now that it only remains in place because the political elite can manipulate it easier than they can an efficient one.

No, if we, the people, ever want to have a fair primary system, we, the people, will have to get the job done ourselves.

ex animo
davidfarrar
The National Online Party

Not since the very beginnings of our democracy have we had an opportunity, as a people, to come together as we once did in small town hall meetings all across this country to speak with one, deliberative voice.

Our present "representative" party structure -- and I speak of one party structure because both the Democratic and Republican parties operate basically under the same party structured -- has developed as a natural consequence to a population growth that made small, individual town meetings impossible. But now, as Bob Dylan ofttimes laments, "Things have changed". The Internet, if structured correctly, can give "the people" back their voice at their own local party level so they can once again speak with a clear, deliberative voice.

The problem is, party leaders have no interest in using the Internet for this purpose. Allowing party members to communicate with themselves at the netroot level could change the present power matrix within the party itself.  The mere threat of a "possible" change in the party power matrix is enough to stop party leaders from pursuing such a course.

No, if we, the people, want our voices to be heard, as they once were at the local party level, we must pick up the tool of the Internet and get the job done ourselves. Once the people's voice is hear at the local party level, the national party will make the right decision.

To find out more, please go to The National Online Party and drop me a line, or post a comment.