Lorenzo wrote:Darwin wrote:So, do you imagine a time in the past 200 years when it was very different? Of course, if we had just one party and a supreme ruler, we wouldn't have to worry about such things...
New York City, poulation approx. 8 million, is larger than the entire US population in the early 1800's. Last year the mayor proposed changing NYC back to nonpartisan elections. Most cities in the US are nonpartisan. It can help take the ugliness out of the election system.
Even my previous residence, Marina, CA, tiny as it is (population: 18,343, 8.7 square miles), has had some very nasty non-partisan elections.
Note that even with a much smaller population, national elections seem to have always led people to form a few large parties. I suspect that the only way to prevent this would be to have a law prohibiting people from forming formal parties. But, I don't think you could constitutionally prevent people from forming groups and meeting to support a particular candidate. Even though the system supports this now, it seems to have originally evolved through the actions of the people.
Califonia state elections commonly see gubernatorial candidates from about eight or ten parties (Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, ect.), but most people vote for the Democrat or the Republican. No one forces them to do this. Whether this tendency to go for predominant groups is a flaw in human nature, or not, is open to debate, but it seems to be a fact that it exists.
The "problem" with a democracy (and even with a democratic republic) is that there can be no law against making unwise decisions.
Also, that way everyone has a fair chance to run in elections instead of being barred from participation, or barred from the election process like debates.
Let's say I decided to run for President under a non-partisan system, how would I go about it? If I didn't have a party, would I have to fund the campaign myself?
There used to be (and may still be) a guy who ran for Mayor of Carmel at every election (no, not Clint). When Casady & Greene was in Carmel Valley, I often saw him standing by Highway 1 with his sign. If he decided to run for President, how would he get his message out to the entire US voting public?
I'm not saying it couldn't be done, I just can't figure out how it would work as a practical matter. I can imagine starting out with a few thousand candidates and having maybe a dozen votes to pare down the group. I'm not sure the final result would be any better than what we have now. How long would it take a voter to figure out which candidate is best? (Since I'm obviously best, would most voters find it easy to realize that fact?)
Sounds like a nice starting scenario for a half-dozen different sci-fi novels, though.