IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY

It should not be this way. Democracy is supposed to be an uplifting, inspired and inspiring experiment, but America in election mode is a most dispiriting experience and never more so than in the seemingly endless run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why do we allow the agony, like a slow torture, to be interminable? Who wants it this way? 

I find it hard to believe that the candidates are driving this. Getting up early every day before dawn, for two years and without reprieve, to be ready to confront the press that is following you like a dog on the scent of a female in heat and deliver the same message over and over again at county fairs, high school auditoriums, VFW halls and road-side diners. Who would enjoy this? And what do you get, when you win in the end? An impossible job, where every misstep you make can have catastrophic consequences, while your opportunity to do good is limited by something that is called ‘division of power’ and the fact that about half of your constituents want you to fail.

The two parties don’t want this. A two year election campaign becomes a free for all and the parties are losing control, which has never been as evident as this year.

The public, or at least a majority of the public does not want it this way, because their favorite TV programs get interrupted every few minutes by campaign commercials and the campaigns exacerbate the polarization that divides families and put strain on personal and business relationships. And, in the meantime, the nation’s business gets neglected, put on the backburner.

The only beneficiaries, it seems, of the American way of electioneering are the TV Stations, the cable companies and the press. For them our misery is their windfall that keeps on giving. But is their support enough to continue to play by the same rules ad infinitum?

This year’s presidential election campaign is unusually distressing because it brings to the fore two candidates who, even within their own party, are widely despised and rejected. How can we expect the general voting public—and the world watching us—to get enthused about this proverbial ‘lesser of two evils’ choice? America is in an existential crisis and the lesser of two evils will have to lead it out of the danger zone and into a new era of world dominance? It is now clear that the 2017 inauguration will crown a seriously flawed character, aged at or near 70, as the presumed leader of the Western world. Is that the best America can do? Is that the leadership that we need and deserve? It is maddening to think that in four years this mess will get repeated again and that the world will pass us by, in no mood to wait for us to get our act together. America moves from one era of missed opportunity to the next.

Maybe this is the way it has to be. Maybe, the only way America can get its act together is by letting things get so bad that it will finally dawn on us that fundamental change of our political system is in order to right the ship. In that sense a Trump win might be just the thing America needs. But hold on to your seats, because we would be in for a bumpy and potentially dangerous ride. If Donald Trump is elected President and if he makes good on only half of his promises and threats, America will be in a world of trouble before we get to evaluate the pace setting first hundred days of the Trump Presidency. Ian Bremmer, founder and president of the Eurasia Group and author of the book “Superpower, Three Choices for America’s Role in the World”, gave us an excellent preview of what we can expect from a Trump presidency in his June 3 article for Politico, titled “Trump and the World: What Could Actually Go Wrong.” It is frightening and what is even more frightening is that the defeated and deflated republican establishment is standing by, powerless to stop the madness.

What America needs, but will not get from either candidate, is a fundamental restructuring of the American political system, i.e.

·         An end to the two party system (which may actually result from the party conventions that will show more acrimony than unity)

·         Banning or severely curtailing the money influence in American politics

·         Open primaries in all States

·         A six months limit on the whole process of primaries, conventions and general election campaign

·         Reduced frequency of elections and term limits for all elected offices

·         An end to gerrymandering of voting districts

Without such drastic restructuring of the American political system we will not—regardless of who occupies the White House—be able to begin to address the top imperatives for America’s success in the future that has already begun. Rather than invigorating our economy, reducing the destabilizing inequality, working on a modern infrastructure and a healthier environment, we will continue our internecine battles and abandon the values of tolerance, pluralism, open borders, equality before the law and care for those who can’t care for themselves, which have made America the exceptional nation it once was and still can be.