DeLand’s own gubernatorial candidate Michael Arth is fighting the good fight to get his party’s nomination. He’s run into the true party system at work.
In our two-party system, the sad truth is each party’s candidate is anointed by party honchos before the public even gets a look at them. The deals are made, the backing is promised.
Try to run as a third party candidate, and good luck to ya. In only rare instances has a third party candidate won major elections.
So, it’s generally the party machine that decides in advance. When you go to the polls, you have a choice between two hand-picked candidates. That’s why there’s often little real difference between them. They’ve been picked to pick up as many votes as possible, at least according to the computations of party flacks, and to do the will of the party bosses.
That’s how we get weird tickets like McCain-Palin. McCain had the Repub blessing already, and talking middle-of-the-road Republican, while claiming mavericky status. Those in charge figured Palin would tow the line, and would look good enough to pick up some of the younger right-wing votes McCain might miss.
We got the odd Obama-Biden ticket in the same way – balancing the ticket. Obama, the African-American “liberal” and Biden, the middle-of-the-road Joe Middle White America, to soothe those frightened by Obama.
The point is, regardless of party, it’s the party cheeses who choose the candidates.
It was a tossup between Obama and Clinton. I kinda think Obama got the nod because the party cheeses weren’t really thrilled with a woman – especially Hillary. (It worked out well, however.)
Not that I’m picking on the Democrats — I am one. But I still carry a little grudge about the way the national party treated Florida during the primaries last election year.
Anyway. So, now, outsider Arth is up against the state-party machinery. The Democrats have already anointed Alex Sink, barring some big scandal from materializing.
In today’s press release, Arth stated, “… the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) has ‘paid for and authorized’ prominent and numerous fundraising ads and banners on its official website” favoring Florida Democrat Party Chair Karen Thurman’s candidate, Alex Sink.
“The advertisements were paid for with money raised from Florida Democrats to support Democratic candidates. To spend these funds to support candidates more than a year before the Primary Election is to deny these Democrats any say in how their money is spent and to dilute their choice in the Primary,” Arth said.
We’ll see how he fares.
It’s even worse than this. The two-party facade of choice, buttressed by a deeply flawed winner-take-all electoral system, tends to select for venality. Our leaders avoid the real issues, prevaricate when forced to talk, and spend much of their time raising money from interests highly invested in the status quo. The term “Democratic Party” has become an oxymoron, and the Republicans are even worse. Like the old Soviet Union, we are allowed to vote for the candidates selected by a handful of party leaders who lurk behind the curtains.
If voting really worked it would be illegal. As George Carlin once said, “I haven’t voted since I stopped taking drugs. That was in the late ’70s, and the delusional thinking stopped immediately on both fronts.”
We laugh at Carlin because most people sense something is wrong with the way we vote. The two-parties manage to create enough confusion on the subject that Americans are not aware we have one of the worst electoral systems in the civilized world. Most people blame the politicians but the real problem is vote-buying, combined with the winner-take-all voting system.
If we had majority voting (instant runoff voting) for single member elections, and proportional representation for larger, newly-created, multi-member House districts–combined with public campaign financing-we would see a vast improvement in the quality of our leaders and in democratic representation. We would see the ascendancy of other parties and principled independents. Pay-for-play, spoilers, vote-strategizing, gerrymanders, and the disenfranchisement of the majority would cease.
With this kind of electoral reform we would begin to see policies based on the highest good for the greatest number, instead of policies that bring the greatest reward to the smallest number. It would still not be a perfect country, but we’d be able to have the best government possible.
For more go to my campaign website at http://www.michaelearth.org. You find it to be an informative light-filled place where you can pull back the curtain and expose the machinations of those who pull the levers. Join people from across the political spectrum to register and vote for Michael E. Arth in the Democratic primary on August 24, 2010. Help bring real democracy to Florida and America.
The problem with Mr. Arth’s candidacy isn’t that he can’t run, he can and is and deserves props for that. The problems lie with his ideas which will not gain any traction so he won’t get much publicity. But there are many ways to get publicity and Mr. Arth is pretty creative so he just needs to think of some ways to do it.
However, with ideas such as population control and a complete misunderstanding of how electoral districts are apportioned in our representative democracy he is too far outside of most Floridians sense of the mainstream. The parties operate in their own ways and he can try to operate within a party organization or not. Its up to him, no one is holding a gun to his head to do this.
Ken,
There are 220,000 more people added to our limited planet every day. As philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell once said on the subject, “People would rather commit suicide than learn math.”
Ken, you need to do the math on the overpopulation problem. Instead of talking about how the lemmings won’t listen to me, you should also do the math on how our electoral system works and how it limits our choices. It’s your choice whether you want to find out about how we are being cheated from having a proper say in the things that determine everything about the way we live.
Michael Arth is correct that the planet is facing an imminent problem of human overpopulation, but the more critical issue that must be confronted is whether natural resources are being used and distributed in a just and sustainable manner. Numerous studies have shown that people don’t suffer from hunger because there is a net shortage of food in the world, but rather because agricultural industries and markets are geared toward increased profits and accumulation of wealth rather than meeting human needs. Capitalist globalization may be an effective means of increasing profits for a minority who are in a position to benefit from the system (which is NOT a “free market” at all), but for the vast majority of the planet’s population it has had a negative economic impact. This is a complex issue and while it is important in terms of U.S. international policy, I don’t see it as having much impact on the governor’s race.
One of the challenges that we face here in Florida is how to shift to a “steady state” economy that is not driven by artificial growth, which is spurred by land speculation and profits from development rather than the needs of our communities. We need to build sustainable communities based on sound economic and ecological principles. We need to adopt economic policies that preserve our rural lands and conserve our soil and water resources. We need to recognize that our communities do not exist to serve the needs of the “development industry” and that all growth is not necessarily an enhancement to our way of life. If that were true, the areas where we’ve seen the highest growth would also have the highest quality of life and the lowest taxes. Please show me where that has happened.
I’m glad to see that Democrats will have a choice for governor in the 2010 primary, and Mr. Arth is doing the party a favor by pointing out the rampant hypocrisy and lack of democracy in the party’s own political process. Why should a candidate for governor be “annointed” by a handful of party hacks (who happen to control the purse strings) when the purpose of the primary process is to give the voters an opportunity to hear from the candidates and make an informed choice? It is sad to see the Democrats continue to conduct their affairs in such an unprincipled “business as usual” manner, and Michael Arth is right to protest. Unfortunately, it won’t do any good, because the party “machine” isn’t interested in candidates like him, and they would prefer that he just go away.
Thanks Beacon and thank you Mr. Arth.