The question is, how do we make it happen when the Democrats an the Republicans will both fight this? I don't have an answer. If you don't like Obama or McCain, and you're considering throwing your vote away on a candidate who can't win, you should, at least, in addition to complaining how both candidates suck, be woring your ass off doing all you can so that the next round, when you vote for a third party candidate, your vote will count. Fail to do that and it makes no sense to use your vote to send your message of dissatisfaction-- political masturbation-- fantasization that gives you brief relief.
All the third party orgs should be joining together, recruiting independents and huge percentage of Democrats and Republicans who are disgusted with congress and their parties, to build a big, strong movement that demands equal treatment for third parties and some form of instant runoff or similar voting that lets people vote for their most preferred candidates AND second and third choices. Get enough people behind this-- there should be tens of millions-- and the wisdom of the crowd and the power and momentum of the sheer mass of the people behind this movement will come up with the answers from the bottom up.
My title refers to the cream of the heart. When we can vote for the candidate who we find most matches our own vision, values and beliefs, we're voting from the heart. That's what we should be able to do. If we are able to do that, I believe that the system will change. Candidates will be forced to stand for a lot more. They'll have to keep their promises and pay a lot more attention to the people. We have the tools, through the net, through instant messaging and texting and all the new media to be much more effective at communicating with our legislators. There's no reason why every issue facing congress and every state or local government could not be voted upon by the people, and counted by district, or the area any elected offial represents.
Here's a poll:
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