Quote:
Originally posted by pan6467
Nationally, though, you are taking away time from the people who worked hardest (true that's a debateable statement) to get on all 50 ballots (I think most states just require so many signatures before the deadline... except the GOP and DEMS who are given passes which I disagree with.).
That's another downside to this partisan hate mongering. If the focus stays on the 2 big parties hating each other and the "he said, she said" game there's no room or time to focus on other groups that might actually make more sense and erode one of the big 2's base.
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The problem I have with the approach of being on all state ballots pertains to the pieces of your above response. The first is that the two (or three) major party candidates who make it on the ballot of all 50 states already get their messages out on a pretty national level. So, they really need less time to present them and questions could be geared to addressing the specific issues which presumably all candidates will have a plan for. By having multiple debaters this may force the candidates to discuss their own plans more and rail on opponents' plans less.
The second is that the lesser known candidates never get any attention and their ideas take a loooong time to get recognition (as you pointed out). This would give them an opportunity to build some support and provide options to voters.
One of the biggest issues I have about our society is that we want choices in everything EXCEPT politics. We have this need to be able to choose from a thousand different electronic products with slightly different options. Our cars need to come from a dozen manufacturers, be available in 10 different colors/styles and offer several different option packages. Travel arrangements need to run the gamut from sub compact to luxury rental cars, general boarding to business, to business first, to first class plane tickets, hotels need smoking and non-smoking rooms, king or double beds, have gyms, pools, car service, concierge, etc, etc, etc. And yet our voters are perfectly happy supporting a non-responsive two party system that forces you to choose between only two candidates that often have a hell of a lot more in common than they have differences.