An experiment in direct, distributed political action

An experiment in direct, distributed political action

The duopoly controls the polls. For years it had a great many people convinced that there was such a thing as the lessor of two evils, but I think the events of the past two years have finally disabused a majority of that notion.

Yet how do we unseat the duopoly? We may agree that they are not our representatives, that they have been compounding our problems for the past decade, at least, but we don't agree on much else.

How can we hope to launch a third party that can prevail against the elephant-donkey Frankenstein?

How will we ever be able to create an organization the can rival that machine's finances?

Why would we want to do such a thing?

Here's a thought experiment.

Suppose all of us simply write in the name of a candidate we know and trust, who pledges to serve if elected, and who also...

1. pledges not to accept campaign funds from anyone other than those able to vote for the office in question, not to accept money except individually... person-to-person... bundler-free, and not more than say 40 hours wages at the minimum wage from any one contributor. The federal level is $7.25x40=$290 max in 2010.
2. pledgess to work for a National Initiative amendment and an amendment enforcing the Campaign Finance conditions in 1. above for all candidates.

What'll happen?

There will be many, many ballots cast for non-duopole candidates and run-off elections will become the norm. We will each of us then realize that the machine can in fact easily be defeated. In some constituencies people will swing behind the non-duopole who has garnered the most votes the first time around and write them in the second time around, actually winning elections. This will truly be the moment that the revolution crystallizes. The practice will spread very quickly after that.

The beauty of this strategy is that it requires no explicit co-ordination prior to the fact, other than massive write-ins for all federal offices : for the House, for the Senate, and for President. We don't have to unite behind any one candidate in the first poll, a majority must simply write-in a non-duopole meeting criteria 1 & 2 above, forcing the run-off elections.

We would certainly all like someone whose ideaology is consonant with our own... but at this point in time any representation at all pledged to work to enlarge and perpetuate popular sovereignty has got to be attractive to anyone who's paying attention. Whether that representation is from the left or right, or some point in between, is secondary right now.

We must act.

The hour is very late. Spread the word and write in a friend. Worst that happens is another duopole wins, which is a foregone conclusion if we vote according to pattern anyway.

If instead the above strategy works... then a brand new day will have dawned in America in the last minutes of her darkest hour.