Just a few thoughts I had...

The recent gubernatorial election in California should have taught us something about elections and campaigning. It's not what your opinion is, what your platform is, or your party affiliation - in order to get elected, all you need is name recognition. If Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't a celebrity before running for office, he never would have been elected, and he could have been elected on a platform of raping and pillaging Nevada.

Speaking of elections, I want to throw out an idea I got from L. Neil Smith from his books "The Probability Broach" and "The American Zone". For each position up for election in any race, the ballots list the people running the office and one extra entry for a write-in. I'd like to add one more choice to that list: None of the above are Acceptable. If this entry wins a majority of the votes in a race, the second place entry gets the position, but with the clear message that a majority of the voters didn't want him in office. Eventually, we could move to the true vision - if None of the Above wins, the position remains unfilled. Either way, we could drastically reduce the level of government influence above us. Ultimately, I'd love to see if this raises the level of voter turnout and shows that voter apathy is due to a lack of viable choices rather than disgust with the process.

What do you think? Drop me an e-mail...