The 2016 election, while entertaining to watch, made my generation realize that politics is a corrupt, exhausting, and frightening realm of society. A lot of us have lost hope, thinking there’s no way to fix this system. No way to make this government for us, by us. I have some proposals to accomplish this. The Media The media played a big role in this election cycle, and was caught red-handed for being biased and inaccurate. According to a Gallup poll, ⅔ of America have no trust in the media. Meddling with poll results, portraying their chosen candidate as an angel, quote-mining to make the opposition seem deplorable, and so much more. What can we do? We can boycott them. Stop watching them, stop listening to them. Boycotts will always scare companies into changing policy, as we’ve seen time and time again. Or, we can critically think about what they say, instead of blindly following their instructions. Fact check them ourselves. We can also push for the repeal of the Telecommunications Act, which allows mega corporations to attempt to create a monopoly on media sources. I support the existence of PBS, and we should apply the Fairness Doctrine to it. As a libertarian, I don’t believe in imposing the Fairness Doctrine upon other media outlets, because that is a violation of freedom of speech, but that doesn’t mean us, as consumers, can demand fair representation of alternative viewpoints on the networks. Debates We desperately need to put a nonpartisan organization in charge of the debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates is led by Michael D. McCurry (Democrat) and Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr. (Republican). It’s pretty evident that the two major parties control this commission, and that they deliberately oppose third party participation, because it’ll topple their control. Originally, the presidential debates were controlled by the League of Women Voters, which sponsored the debates from 1976-1984. Then the bipartisan Commission on Elections said control of debates should be transitioned to the two major parties, and that they should purposely not include third party candidates. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed, and that’s the way it’s been ever since. It’s time for a change. This election, we’ve seen the Republican debates turn into a joke, viewers just watching to see Donald Trump whip out his zingers against his opponents. We’ve seen Hillary Clinton get questions in advance, and a drastically unfair distribution of speech time. Here’s my proposal: Demand better debates from the parties, who shall be in charge of conducting their own debates. When it comes to general election debates, PBS shall conduct them, and include all the candidates that are either on enough state ballots to win the electoral college, or are polling at 5% nationally. Voting System Instead of just voting for a single candidate, I would love to see the implementation of ranked voting. How does this system work? I’ll let CPG Gray explain it. See? Doesn’t that sound beautifully democratic. “But Chris, America isn’t a democracy, it’s a Republic!” Democracy is one of the cornerstones of republicanism. Without it, we cannot elect, or at least feel content with electing, the representatives that actually participate in the inner workings of government. I would also support an abolishment of the electoral college system. Once again, here’s a video explaining that. Election Day I fully support early voting. This year, people early voted in record numbers. Every state should have early voting; it’s more convenient and allows people to participate in our democracy. Election Day should be a federal holiday, and shouldn’t be held on Tuesday anymore. It’s on Tuesday because the early American politicians knew most Americans would stay home on Sunday because of the Sabbath, so assuming Monday was used as a day to travel to the voting booth (remember, people were spread out and we rode horses and walked everywhere), we voted on Tuesday. This is an archaic and useless tradition that’s stuck around ever since. Make Election Day a Saturday or something, so people can actually afford to stay up for the results and more people can get off work.
Registered Voters The overwhelming concern for voting fraud was very hefty in this election, thanks to Donald Trump claiming that the race will be “rigged.” I’m sure he’s very concerned about that right now. We have to realize some things: voter fraud is not as rampant as you believe it is, and it’s nearly impossible to rig an election. That being said, we can have certain measures to prevent it. I do not support the requirement of an ID to vote, for it will disadvantage certain citizens, and fake IDs are created regularly. Consider this: men from the ages of 18-25 are automatically registered into Selective Service in multiple states. Why couldn’t we do this with voting? We should automatically register people to vote, so they wouldn’t have to worry about it. States should consider implementing affidavits to limit possible voter fraud. I support the classification of voter fraud as a felony, and the immediate deportation of any illegal immigrant committing it. Democracy is a valuable thing in society, and it shouldn’t be exploited. Education This is one of my biggest problems with American politics. The fact that people frequently ask me what’s the difference between a Democrat and a Republican is a sad reflection on our nation. The fact that people can’t properly define “the establishment” or explain how the Electoral College works, the fact that at least 42% of Americans can’t name the three branches of government. We need a better civics course. The fact that people don’t even know what else is on the ballot concerns me. We need to better inform the public. We need to get the citizens of the United States excited about voting, excited about our elections. America can do better than this. With a better informed population who are able to vote when they want to, without the feeling of guilt sparking from their choices, we can move towards prosperity. Improving the parties and the media, allowing people with different opinions to join the ring, these things will allow the citizens of the United States to be content with their choices.
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This election cycle has been a wild experience for me. I have made a large amount of connections, creating friends and interacting with the candidates themselves. John McAfee, Marc Allan Feldman, Austin Petersen, and Jill Stein have all communicated with me one way or another. My interest in politics flourished, and now I’m anxious to see what happens next. To summarize my journey in this election, I began as a simple Bernie supporter. His populist message spoke to me and inspired me to research more. He was one of the first politicians I’ve encountered that seemed to actually believe what they said. Sanders pushed nonintervention foreign policy, battled the establishment, and targeted crony capitalism. When I realized that his monetary policies would be catastrophic on the American economy, I merged over to the right. I voiced support for McAfee or Petersen, wanting a principled Libertarian to champion us to 5%. Alas, Gary Johnson was determined to be the “pragmatist” vote, and he was chosen as the Libertarian nominee. Since then, I have frequently fought for Johnson in my home state of Florida, even though multiple people told me not to, considering the fact that I live in a swing state. I don’t care. I know multiple people that hate Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Why should they neglect the ballot because both candidates are abysmal? Why should they remain ignorant to the other options? I shared articles on Facebook, complained about Hillary’s lack of indictment and Trump’s lack of competence, and made fun of the main two by dressing up as them. It was hard defending Governor Johnson. His controversy during the primaries made him unlikeable to many of the party members. For those unaware, Johnson had said he doesn’t believe in the freedom of association and said he was “open to debate” on gun control. Very liberal stances for a pro-freedom candidate. I didn’t mind though. The ultimate blow came with two words: What’s Aleppo? Ugh. Johnson fell in the polls. He was portrayed as an ignorant buffoon by the news networks. It was a hard thing to fight against, but I always said, “I prefer the way Johnson bombed Aleppo than they way Trump or Hillary would bomb it.”
Speaking of the news networks, this election opened my eyes and enlightened me on just how ill informed the populace is, and just how corrupt the media has become. It’s terrifying. As a liberal, I’ve constantly heard attacks on Fox News. As a libertarian, I can still say Fox News is complete garbage that no one should watch, due to its frequent inaccuracies, suspension of logic, and obvious bias. That being said, The Young Turks, CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post… They’re all complete trash. Adjusting evidence and observations to suit their agenda, lying about their enemies, etc. Now, I only use these sources of “information” to get initial observations and their point of view on it. I alternate between them to get everyone’s side. CBS, Secular Talk, and The Jason Stapleton Program are pretty accurate and fine to watch. It all came down to election night. I had switched from believing that Trump had it to predicting a win for Hillary. This is my exact post from a Facebook group: “Hillary's winning tonight. Trump has to keep a hold on the states he has, win all the swing states, and get states leaning towards Hillary. The Weiner scandal occurred after early voting started, and people voted early in historic numbers. If voting numbers are high, we can expect neither Johnson or Stein to get 5%. Johnson will have a larger number than 2012, though, maybe 3%.” Well. I was wrong. Florida goes red. Ohio goes red. Pennsylvania. North Carolina. It takes hours upon hours to get these results, me staying up until 1 AM to hear them. But he managed to do it. Donald John Trump managed to win the election. At least the electoral vote. Clinton won the popular vote, which Johnson only managed to receive 3% of. Two points short of the goal. I won’t lie. I was rooting for Donald Trump to win. Scratch that, I was rooting for him to beat Hillary Clinton. I tweeted, “I don’t want Donald Trump to win. I just want him to beat Hillary Clinton.” Both candidates are liars, having terrible Politifact ratings. Both candidates have flip flopped, from Hillary saying she was opposed to gay marriage until 3 years ago and shifting to the left due to Bernie Sanders, or Donald Trump converting between single payer and free market health care and having an ambiguous relationship with Vladimir Putin. Both candidates are currently being investigated, Donald for Trump University and Hillary for her emails. Both candidates are authoritarian populists who have a sense of entitlement and greed. That being said, Donald Trump is the lesser of two evils. Trump has never been in government, never having a position. He doesn’t know who to rub elbows with. Hillary Clinton has been in state government, Congress, and the White House. She has big corporate donors. She knows how to get things done, and that’s what scares me the most. I agree with her around 20% of the time, and I don’t want her pushing her center-right tyrannical policies through the Republican Congress. You already know none of the Democrats will listen to Trump. Most of the Republicans in Congress have hostility or heavily disagree with Trump, so he won’t get anything done, most likely. Trump has also hinted at more libertarian positions, like getting out of foreign affairs, lowering taxes, etc. I could never vote for Donald Trump. I cannot be responsible for that. I will always vote for the candidate that represents my values and for the candidate I am comfortable representing me. I will prefer a candidate to win over another, I will root them on, but I refuse to support or endorse them. That’s my relationship with the Donald Trump of 2016, mere preference over a woman who has lied, who has climbed, who has manipulated, who has slithered her way to the top. The reaction to Trump winning has been absurd. Riots are happening in large liberal cities. The Canadian Immigration website crashed. There are (currently UNPROVEN) reports of trans youth killing themselves. Communist flags are being flown and Ole Glory is being burned in the streets. People are refusing to say the Pledge and people are crying on Facebook. Guess who the blame is thrown towards? To the Republican Party for letting this be their candidate? Not really. To the Democrats for rigging their primary and making Hillary Clinton, one of the most unlikeable politicians in history, their nominee? Only a few are saying that. No, “privileged white males” and independent voters are being shoved under the bus. Ridiculous. You wonder how the Democrats lost, and then they pull stuff like this. I cannot say how good of a president Trump will be. He could do a complete 180 on his beliefs and be a loveable guy, playing a character just to win. Who knows? We’ll all find out in January. He gave his victory speech, but it wasn’t the usual boastfulness we expect from Trump. He said we, as a collective, need to become a “united people.” He wants us to celebrate “our victory.” He is trying desperately to start the unification process after such a toxic election. Fights are happening in schools, people are rioting. We need to stop. If we elect a smart Congress and apply a level of social pressure on the Trump administration, our country will be fine. We need to chill. Let’s all come together, and enjoy the next four years of memes and the anticipation for Kanye West vs Donald Trump in the year 2020. |
Christopher CaldwellJust some thoughts on current events and such. Archives
January 2017
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