Friday, September 5, 2008

IMAGINE...the U.S. with NO political parties....






what a different and perhaps even wonderful world it would be....

it certainly would put CNN,Fox News, MSNBC and any other "unbiased" news shows out of business...

I am a self-professed INDEPENDENT, which means to me, that I will look at all candidates on their positions, not their party, race or gender, and vote for one who fits closely to my values and needs as a citizen of the United States. In the past, I've voted for both democratic presidents and republican presidents.

IMAGINE, though, for a moment, what it would be like if we didn't have those parties.

IMAGINE what it would be like for a person to run for office on his/her beliefs, his/her values and what he/she actually believes would be in the best interest of the country, and not worry about what his/her "party" thinks they should say.

IMAGINE if, instead of hearing the pundits of the media spew misplaced and exaggerated facts, we actually were able to view resumes of candidates (name on top deleted so that you could not tell if they were black, white, hispanic, Christian, Jewish or any other religion, or if they were female or male). Their resumes would have to list their accomplishments thus far, a written essay (written solely by them) listing how they would handle the country's issues (ie. terrorism, health care, the economy, etc. etc.) and any references they could count on to validate their accomplishments. They would not need to post that their brother, sister, uncle, child, or other relation was in trouble with the law, is pregnant without being married, etc. etc.

Now this would certainly put the voter in a working position...They would actually have to read for themselves the resumes and essays and ascertain which "candidate" best fits their perspective on said subjects. And then vote accordingly.

AND, IMAGINE, if every vote did truly INDEED count....gone would be the electoral college voting system...and we would probably have a different history....

IMAGINE.....

For me, I am totally on the fence with the two candidates. Obama offered fresh ideas, McCain offered wisdom that comes with age and life experiences. Truth be told, I didn't have a lot of information on Joe Biden, but it appeared that he, too offered wisdom that comes with age and life experiences himself, and Sarah Palin offered fresh ideas and youth to the Republican ticket. My first reaction to Sarah Palin? Fresh, young, different. Someone who was living a very different "political" life than in Washington. Why did I like her? I don't know exactly, but she seemed real to me. A wife, mother of 5. I related.

But then came the mudslinging, and attacks on her daughter...which I personally would have been mortified by had it been my daughter. Children, and 17 qualifies as a child, should be off limits. I didn't understand why the media was being so vicious.

Do I think Obama and Biden were behind this? No, I really don't. Do I think this was a Democratic party issue? YES! And the Republicans do the very same thing!

If there were no parties, politicians could cross over party lines if need be for the issues they believed in.

What a concept.

But for now, we are a two party system, and a country divided. It's sad that it takes a tragedy (i.e. 9-11) to bring the country together. I hope we can figure a way to be united again, without experiencing another tragedy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know, i've thought about this. but i wonder instead of a no-party system, we'd be better off with a multi-party system...

i honestly don't think any of the candidates offer anything new - i think you have be a certain type of person to be a successful politician in this country... and maybe that is a result of our 2-party system?

plus ca change...!

asgreen said...

I think the real problem is our media. To be honest I'm going to vote for Obama. Palin, while admirable is just to socially conservative for me. However, for the media to attack her children like that was horrible, and sexist (I bet that would never happen to a man). I've given up watching all those news challenges and I watched both the conventions on PBS because there was no taking except those on the podiums.

Great thought provoking post.

letterstoelijah said...

I think the "party" is there to launder the money.

It's only September and I'm so sick of all of this. I hate being a swing state. We don't answer the phone in the month of November.

Sharon said...

@asgreen - what a great idea to watch on PBS....I will remember that next time!

Joe said...

I could not have said it better myself. Sorry my response to one of your blogger friends caused you to be down. I just wanted people to see the forest and not just the trees. Sorry Babe.