You know, there is a long tradition in the U.S. of, um, promoting elections up to the point that you get an outcome you don't like. Look at Latin America in the Cold War.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
We're like a Third World country when it comes to some of our election practices.
Elections are held to delude the populace into believing that they are participating in government.
Is the purpose of free elections to allow the most clever and vicious person to aggregate power, or is the purpose of free elections to enable the American people to have a serious conversation about their country's future and try to find both a policy and a personality that they think will carry to them that better future?
Of course, it is always nice to poll well, but if you don't get representatives elected, then what is the point?
In some countries that are darlings of the West, like Egypt, everyone knows the result of national elections years in advance: The man in power always wins. In others, like Saudi Arabia, the very idea of an election is unthinkable.
What's the point of elections if everything is already decided?
The big secret to winning elections is to get more votes than your opponent. My friend Representative Robin Hayes is a good example to study.
We have a system that allows us to manage a free and fair election, free of fraud, free of intimidation, and that's what we delivered on election day, and we're very very proud of it.
As dismayed as Americans are with the influence of the special interests that finance election campaigns, they've been reluctant to embrace the alternative: taxpayer-financed elections.
It is a paradox that far too few Americans participate in the wonderful ritual of democracy that we call Election Day.