Part of it is the money, but another part of it is the absurd length of time our elections take. So yes, money is involved, but the way the two main parties drag out the elections as long as possible feeds that. Third parties can't compete when an 18 month election across 50 states at least two times each occurs.Originally Posted by Uchiha Barles
Ask someone in a foreign country how long their elections are. Of all places, Iran's General Election has over 6000 applicants usually, and it runs at most 2 months for the entire process. Admittedly, the constituents that American candidates are across a much larger area than nearly every other country in the world. So a longer election cycle can be expected. But for it to be a year and a half (and that year and a half you know none of the candidates are doing their damn job in Washington) is absurd. No normal person not backed by lobbyists or the two huge organizations that are the DNC and RNC has even a chance of getting to those states and making a difference.
But moreover, what do the candidates do during those 18 months? Do they talk about all the issues that our nation faces, proving which of them has better ideas about how to fix the country, what their stances are on various issues and how they will interact with the rest of the world as the face of the nation? A little. But what they really do is spend half the time insulting and character assassinating their peers in their own party, belittling each other, pointing out all of their faults, and then once that is all over, they start in on the other party. Most of the time they don't even do it directly, that's local politics stuff. Nope, they have their campaigns do it for them in order to keep their own hands clean.
Where does this leave the people? We're left after 18 months of wasted money picking between which of the candidates is less bad. Which one the opponent found less to smear him with. It's all negative campaigning for far too long. The "issues" are only discussed in the final two months. That is the only part that should matter.
What our elections become is not who is better at discussing the issues, who is better to lead the country. It's picking from whoever is not directly on the bottom.
...my favorite part though, is all the promises they make as a Presidential Candidate, in full knowledge that the LEGISLATURE is the only one who has power to make those changes. That stagnat, inner society circle-jerk is where the real problems with this country all stem from. Especially considering they just made a deal for the fucking Wall Street Bailout. Way to betray the people you represent for the top dollar. Congress needs term limits now.
/rant
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