PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION REFORM
Salvaging the Original Intentions of the Founding Fathers
through Modern Electronic Technology
Summary
The new election game is essentially a formal procedure designed to serve several basic purposes. Among these are: 1) To open the way for every constitutionally qualified American, no matter how numerous, to answer his or her calling (whether based on vanity or talent), to the nation's highest office. 2) To make constitutionally legitimate a democratic means by which people who feel called to the presidency can be selected for the office. 3) To involve the American electorate as directly as possible in the screening and final election of candidates.
During the State Selection stage of the process people will have the opportunity to watch several hours of TV debates between the hopefuls. No one can say how many people will enter the initial series of selection debates. The number will probably vary in each state. In some states there may be only one or two people who will both qualify and participate in the debates. Perhaps no one will participate in a few states.
In my discussion I assumed the very high number of 1000 persons participating in the process. 200, I supposed, would pass the Presidential Literacy Test and compete in the initial series of debates. However, the system is designed to easily accommodate five times that number! If 1000 people passed the PLT, rather than the 200 first assumed, they could all be screened by the 50 states in the July round of debates, and the state champions selected on schedule. (See Table F.)
But of course these are fantastic and ridiculous figures! If just over a dozen men who competed in 1992 made up one of the most crowded fields in the history of presidential elections, then the number that passes the PLT is likely to be far less than 1000, or even 200. Perhaps only a few hundred will sign up for the test, and a fraction of them will go on to the initial debates.
Think of it! Today the two-party system bombards, insults, and bores the nation with campaign slogans and commercials for months before the presidential election. And what kind of choice does the electorate get in exchange for its suffering? A poor choice between two men who usually fail to inspire confidence. The new election game can give the nation ten times as many qualified people to choose from. The electorate can screen the field in an orderly, dignified fashion and pluck the best person from the bunch. No one will choose for us, we will do it all ourselves.
The hours spent watching TV debates will not be the only means by which the people will get to know their candidates. Some presidential candidates will already be known within their states. Who has a better chance of winning a series of debates in his state than an elected official who has already been approved by the voters? Perhaps a senator or a Governor will become a state champion and go on to the Regional Run-Offs. People who have campaigned for office in the past will be known by interested citizens and civic group members. However, the new election game will not favor political insiders and will open the door to outsiders more than the two-party system ever did.
Also, during the August-September break the people of the four regions will be very curious about who the dozen or so regional contenders are. There will be ample time for the media and the public to get to know their candidates.
In the three steps following the Regional Run-Offs, the national electorate will have more of an opportunity to become familiar with the candidates because there will be fewer of them. (All debates will be rebroadcast the next morning, and voting results will not be publicized until after the lines are closed following the morning vote.)
Prior to the National Primaries there will have been no national broadcast of the debates. So in the primaries, three-quarters of the country will be seeing three of the candidates debating for the first time. These candidates will be among the most prominent people of our nation. Each one will have been recommended by one quarter of the country as a worthy presidential prospect. Such people will merit the time and attention of the nation.
As a democratic people it is incumbent upon us to thoroughly scrutinize those who aspire to lead us. In doing so we will be educating ourselves as to what kind of people leaders are, and as to what kind of leadership potential out population has. As our standards become more exacting the leadership we call forth will show greater promise. Thus the investment of our time and attention in these pre-election debate-offs will pay us back in a wealth of great political leadership, even as the people become connoisseurs of quality candidates.
So when the national nominees face the incumbents in the final pre-election debate-off, four monumental characters will be competing for the leadership of the land. It is as if we were electing our own gods! Men and women of Mt. Rushmore status, every four years! Because each of the national nominees is already proven to be fit for office, the nation cannot possibly lose. So when two are culled from the four and then one is elected to lead, the national esteem for the president will be unquestionable and his or her popular support will be unshakable.
The new election game is indeed an exercise in reasoned judgment. Parties can have their conventions, but the outcome will be irrelevant to the presidential election process. Therefore, all of the nonsense, deception, chance, and elite domination will be removed from the process. The people will be exposed to a great wealth of varied ideas and opinions. They will be forced to think, if they are to choose and vote. This will be a real education of the electorate!
One central trend of American constitutional history has been to democratize the republic. First came the removal of class and economic restrictions on voter eligibility. Then the 15th Amendment prohibited racial restrictions on voting. Then the 17th Amendment democratized the election of senators. Women won the vote with the 19th Amendment. The 24th Amendment prohibited the poll tax. The 26th Amendment opened the door for youths to vote. The new election game is a giant step towards further democratization of the republic.
Thus the new election game exceeds the expectation of the Founders, that a small number of electors are necessary for an orderly and rational process, by expanding the field of electors. However, reason, order and the quality of the informed choice are not diminished as the number of presidential electors is expanded. This is so because the people have matured over the years, and because the people will become even better educated as the process unfolds. Thus, the new election game will prove another Enlightenment ideal; namely, that people are educable and capable of improvement.
What is "new" in the new election game? First and foremost, the candidates are self-selected. The new election game gives a large measure of reality to what is now the pitiful fib that any kid in America can grow up to be president. The candidates will not need wealth or rich friends. The process will be publicly funded. The PLT will screen out the ignorant. Debates on TV are not new, but real debates followed with a vote that counts is new. And as a preferential vote it gives the voter more of an opportunity to express his feelings than a mere single selection.
Voting by modem or phone is new. No more standing in line outside a garage or gym on a cold and rainy November day after work. The frequency of the vote is also new. Thus participation will not be limited to a one-shot vote in November (or two shots if your state has a primary), but several shots extended over a long period.
People will see immediate results from their votes. Second rank hopefuls will be cast aside as the people make their choices. No intermeddling party elites will make their choices for them. Thus, the electorate's feelings of efficacy will be enormously enhanced. The people will know the joy of exercising real power in the presidential election process. Participation rates will soar, and pride in American government will ride on its coattails. Who could ask for more?
The new election game is no idealistic dream, but a new set of rules for the conduct of presidential elections that no lover of democracy can reject. The vision of social life that we believe in largely determines the form of social reality that we live in. To the extent that our vision continues to tolerate oligarchic themes, those themes will color our social life. For two centuries the American people have bought the view that those who fill the presidency should be selected by the few. Although it is a matter of human design, the practice has seemed so natural that it has hardly been questioned.
Americans have consistently followed the game plan that gives life and power to the oligarchs. We have sometimes played their game gaily, sometimes with a grumbling consent, always calling ourselves a democracy, we have unfailingly fulfilled the image that favored the few. Of course that image falls far short of democracy. But lacking an alternative game plan, what could the people do?
The new election game presents an alternative vision of social reality. It is a vision of people directly, deliberately, and democratically selecting their most important leaders. The antiquated, out moded election practices of the past could be transcended by an electronic democracy that would thrust American politics into the 21st century, and be a role model to the world! The new election game will free the American people to be responsible for themselves. There is no better therapy for public alienation than giving more power to the people. Let electrification enhance human dignity.
THE PRESIDENTIAL LITERACY TEST THE STATE ELECTION DEBATES THE REGIONAL RUNOFFS
THE NATIONAL NOMINATING DEBATES THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DEBATES