Time for election/campaign reform!

I don’t want Iowa deciding for me. Although I grew up in the middle of America I don’t have a lot in common with Iowans.

I don’t want New Hampshire deciding for me. As nice as they are I don’t have much in common with those folks either.

Nor do I want South Carolina voters or those in Michigan or anywhere else deciding who the final two Presidential candidates are that I get to vote for.

I want more of a voice in the final choices!

I want to decide which candidates I will be able to vote for in the upcoming Presidential election. I don’t want a pre-selected pair of homogenized candidates ~ I want a whole platter of choices just like the people in IowaNewHampshireSouthCarolinaMichigan get! But, the way the system is set up now I don’t get a chance to have my voice heard.

Let me back up. First of all, I know – it’s the best political system in the world. I concede that. But, I’m a registered Independent. I always have been. I’m a reporter by trade, one who covered national politics for a big chunk of her career, so I never wanted to be pegged as a member of either major party. From the get-go I registered as a member of neither.

So, not only do I have to put up with the already-screened choices that strain through the political sieve of IowaNewHampshireSouthCarolinaMichigan - I don’t even get to vote in the primary here in my adopted home state of New York. Another chance for me to be part of the system has already been taken away from me.

That pisses me off. And if I were the average Joe or Jill it might even alienate me from the process all together. I might conclude that I might as well stay away from the polling booth because my vote just doesn’t count.

But, of course, it does.

I am not alone in feeling this way. There are Americans all across this land who are sick to death of the way the system works now. There are Americans everywhere who would like to be involved if they felt included.

So – Hellllooooo?! Note to the political powers that be: MAKE THE SYSTEM MORE INCLUSIVE AND MORE INTERSTING TO MORE AMERICANS!

Or maybe the two major parties are more interested in appeasing the outside groups (read that lobbyists) that contribute so much (read that $$$$$) to the system.

Time for the election and campaign system to change. I don’t feel part of it and countless others don’t either.

That’s a shame.