Larry K - "I believe that most candidates have sold their souls to special interest groups by the time they get to any significant position.   It they refuse to sell themselves out, they never get to the significant position."

Asolutely correct, Larry. The party-based system is thus corrupted, the politicians are corrupted, and the public is robbed.

We can only end this fiasco by either completely altering the way that political campaigns are financed...or...

By abolishing political parties altogether.

And that, freightdawg, would not = Communism. Communism is domination of a society by One centralized political party. A political party is a centralized power structure which acts in its own interests (not the public's) and covers its own ass. That does not auger well in the case of one party, like the Communists or the Nazis, and it does not auger well in the case of 2 parties, like the Democrats and Republicans. It does not even auger well in the case of 3, 4, or 5 parties...because parties, like labour unions, or like corporations, are self-serving power structures which seek constantly to enlarge and increase their power. This does not lead in the direction of genuine public service. It leads in the direction of corruption, vicious and ammoral competition (as you see in the dirty election tactics), and oligarchy.

I remember when I was in high school in New York State. They took us inexperienced kids and had us select two lots of people to vote for on the student council....president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the class. Those two lots of people made signs, campaigned, made largely meaningless speeches, and tried to outdo each other (and make each other look stupid if possible) and we were supposed to choose between them. Well, we young minds were being prepared...hypnotized...to trot out dutifully as soon as we reached legal voting age and do the same stupid thing and vote for Democrats and Republicans. We were being taught that it's "normal" to divide up into competitive teams over everything in life and then fight for a prize...winner takes all. Just like a football game.

This is stupid, divisive, and destructive. It's not a good way to organize a society. It leads to people being divided against each other, turned into opponents over a completely unnecessary issue, and made to quarrel and compete with each other instead of working harmoniously toward a common goal.

Every election they tear the country apart emotionally and psychologically. Then somebody wins (Rah! Rah!). Then that somebody says it's time to "heal the wounds" and all become united again behind the winner! What idiocy. That is a recipe for shizophrenia or split personality or something...not a way to lead a country into a good future as a unified society.

It's ridiculous, and it's totally arbitrary to organize society like it was a football game. I guarantee you that it's not necessary to do that in order to have a free, democratic, and prosperous society. Not even vaguely necessary.

It is indeed..."divide and conquer". The public's energy is wasted fighting with each other over ancient loyalties to arbitrary concepts, while the rich few who fund and control ALL the larger political parties win no matter which bunch of faces the public elects.

That's an oligarchy.

You don't need ANY political parties in order to field a number of good candidates to represent a region or a municipality. No sir. All you need is qualified persons (of no party affiliation whatsoever) to come forward as candidates...and then the public chooses who they think would be best from among those candidates. Just like in a municipal election.

You don't need to vote for a president. Just elect local and regional representatives. (Do away with the silly super-personality cult that is a presidential election.) Those representatives form state committees and vote in a national committee from their own ranks. The national committee, representing all states elects officers from its own ranks as the national executives.

A campaign is limited to 6 weeks. All candidates receive exactly the same amount of campaign funding from a public fund. (Bingo! Banks and corporations are out of the funding loop.) They campaign by presenting their ideas, not by attacking their opponents' personal reputation. (Leave that to the press...)

No legislation passes without a 2/3 vote in favour.

Any representative may be recalled by his constituents at regular intervals (once yearly?) if he betrays their trust and they lose confidence in him. In such case, a bi-election must be held to replace him/her.

Now you have a system which genuinely represents the people from the grassroots, costs a fraction of what the present system does, and requires no political parties whatsoever.

I guarantee you that such a system would produce a far better, more honest, more responsible government than the divisive self-aggrandizing party system we have now...and it would free people from this endless, useless bickering and hating each other over old party loyalties.

Political parties are a tool of the centralized elite to maintain the centralized elite. They are no guarantors of democracy, they are the betrayers of democracy.

Republican Rome functioned as a democracy without political parties. So did Athens. So did American Indian nations. It is entirely possible to do that.

This is why I find it so sad to see all you Americans fighting each other tooth and nail all the time over partisan issues. You've been taken for a ride. (And the same thing happens in Canada, by the way...only with more parties, that's all. But our election campaigns are limited by law to 6 weeks. Thank God!)

You've got a government and society which goes functionally insane for more than one out of every four years...all because of this giant football game-like extravaganza that you have arbitrarily created around your two giant political parties. Big, giant mistake!