Since the Civil War, the American two-party political system has been dominated by Democrats and the Republicans. But in 2012, Americans Elect, a nonpartisan organization whose goal is to directly elect a candidate for President outside the party systems, may be changing the game – unfortunately, not for the better.
According to Americans Elect’s website, the organization has collected more than 2,479,973 signatures and is “well on the way to putting the first directly-nominated nonpartisan ticket on the 2012 ballot in all 50 states.”
Here’s a simplified explanation of how it works: any registered voter can currently vote online in round one of American Elect’s online caucus. Users can vote for preexisting American’s Elect candidates, draft candidates or declare themselves as candidates. Candidates will go through a series of three online caucuses to determine which candidates make it out of the online primary and onto the nominating ballot. After the third round of caucuses are over, candidates will be required to answer a Platform of Questions before advancing to the nominating round.
On June 12, Americans Elect will reduce the field to six candidates, based on which candidates had the most votes in the first round of initial balloting. Delegates to Americans Elect will hold an online convention on that day to narrow to choose the presidential nominees. If a majority of voters do not select one candidate, the field will be reduced to three candidates and delegates will go to the polls again on June 19. If one candidate still does not receive a majority of the vote, the American’s Elect will narrow the field to two candidates, with the final nominating ballot taking place on June 26.
But here’s the thing – drafted candidates, must declare their intention to run for President within 14 days of the initial balloting to be listed as the nominee on the nominating ballot. For example, Americans could decide to draft Marco Rubio, but if Marco Rubio does not want to run for President, then he will not show up on the ballot.
More importantly, the American’s Elect presidential candidate is required per American Elect’s bylaws to chose a running mate of a “differing ideological perspective or positions on the Platform of Questions.”
Americans Elect demonizes both the Republican and Democratic party as being caught up in “special interests” (which may be true to some extent) and claims that the leaders within the party are doing the real choosing, leaving the people with little to no choice for President.
While our system does have its downfalls, there are two problems with Americans Elect’s statement and purpose. First, it ignores the benefits to having a party, and second, American’s Elect’s solution to the party system is completely hypocritical.
According to it’s website, “The goal of Americans Elect is to nominate a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters—not the political system.” This sounds like a noble goal, however, the fact that they require millions of dollars, millions of grassroots volunteers and signatures, and the fact that they demand the winner choose a candidate of a different party as a running mate just demonstrates that American’s Elect is a new political party itself.
Although the organization is not a formidable force yet, (a relief considering it would only ensure Obama’s re-election by splitting the votes), Americans Elect has been very active in getting out the vote throughout important primary states with a large presence of volunteers and activists in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. In Puerto Rico, their current leading candidate, Buddy Roemer, actually finished third in the primary.
Americans Elect attempts to offer an alternative to bureaucratic nepotism that sometimes plagues the GOP and Democratic parties, but really ends up in the same position because it’s denying the reality of the US political system while trying to use it at the same time. Parties work for a reason!
Why? Because political parties provide organization for a candidate, and through the party’s platform, candidates are able to fundraise and receive the financial and grassroots support needed to launch a presidential (or other) campaign.
Americans Elect cannot do this without forming a platform themselves, which is exactly what they have done. They have become a new party of “non-partisanship.” This is great, until it comes time to actually make serious decisions about, wars, medicare, social security, gun control, abortion, foreign aid, welfare, cyber-security and every other major issue known (and unknown; pornography, contraception) to man.
The American political system isn’t perfect, but it’s worked pretty well, even if it does sometimes produce a Jimmy Carter, a Richard Nixon or a Barack Obama. It also produced Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower. It’s nice to pretend that partisan differences don’t matter, but fundamental ideologies drive Republican and Democrat candidates, and to ignore that is foolish. Americans Elect is trying to stand for something but ends up standing for nothing.
Red Alert Politics Editor Francesca Chambers contributed to this report.
