Sunday, May 18, 2008

American President: my plan for the US election process

Many people are complaining about the election process theses days, so I sat down and thought about it and came up with a solution - let's make it into a reality TV show.

First of all, I'm thinking American Idol style here. I first thought of something more Survivor style but then we'd have to put a bunch of politicians on an island and they would just sit around blaming each other for the rat problem and the lack of food. That would be boring.

The first part of the show would be a selection process with a panel of judges. We could get some political analysts to do that, they love to criticize people. The contestants will come in and give short speeches, after which they will either be allowed to join the competition or be sent home. This could be the funnest part of all to watch.

The next part will include just those contestants who passed stage one. It would be 15 to 20 people at this point and there would be a maximum of three from any given political party, thus eliminating the per facto two-party system. They will each be sequestered (I've always wanted to use that word) in a hotel until they are eliminated from the running. This will keep them off the evening news and we won't have to put up a whole year of mudslinging.

Each week they will come on stage one by one and take three minutes to answer a question provided to them a few hours before. Those who have not yet taken their turn will remain backstage in a soundproof room until it's their time to come out. The question will be the same for all of them and they will not have input from anyone else on what to say.

After the show is over people get to vote for their favorite. The next week the person with the least number of votes is excused. This continues each week until only one person remains and that person becomes our next president.

With one simple solution we can eliminate long and senseless speeches, year-long campaigns, filibustering, campaign finance issues and the two-party system. We will also get a bigger voter turnout. The only I see so far is vote tampering but that's a problem already, I'm sure we can find a way to resolve it too.

1 comment:

blainebassett said...

I am a subscriber now and love your postings. I like the election one because I think a lot of people would watch it especially if they could vote people off. Hilary would be the first to go!