Letters to the Editor
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APPROVAL RATINGS
Today's Salon article says that Cheney now has a higher approval rating then Bush. So the writer who cited the 18% Cheney approval rating isn't up-to-date with the latest numbers. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll, Bush stands at 38% while Cheney is at 40%. Bush, however, according to another poll (CBS) ranks even lower with a 34% for the same time period. So what does that say? People prefer a secretive, manipulative corporate thug running things instead of a opportunistic, self-centered dullard? Of course, neither number is even approaching a majority. Which means, obviously, that we should throw all of the bums out.
Now, the question is HOW CAN WE DO THIS? Impeachment? That won't work because the Republicans won't allow it to happen as long as they're in power. The court system? Indictments and convictions for treasonist actions? They control the Supreme Court now, folks. Insurrection? Although 300,000 people showed up for a march in D. C. in September, the rest of the citizens were sitting on their behinds watching Survivor and similiar mild-deadening TV shows.
How's this for an answer? Get rid of that damnable outdated - and easy to manipulate - Electoral College. Then the candidates will have to take their campaigns to ALL of the people, who should be guaranteed that their votes count INDIVIDUALLY toward the election of President. Then rewrite HAVA, dump the easy-to-cheat electronic voting machines, and create a truly untamperable system that is used by every voter across the country. Automatically register people to vote upon reaching the majority age instead of putting the additional obstacle of registering in their path. Require voter education in the schools from the lowest elementary grades up through high school. Make election day a holiday for those who vote, and a work day for those who don't.
Get rid of the two-year House of Representatives' terms, and change it to four so that elected officials can concentrate on governing--not campaigning, and putting themselves in positions of potentially accepting tainted dollars.
Re-write campaign laws and work toward public financing of campaigns. Reinstitute the equal time provisions in our electronic media. Get rid of soft money outlets. Clean up the system and then elect t GOOD people. Not the prettiest. Not the tallest. Not the most wealthy. Not the best talker. But the best people to represent US -- you, me, the person across the street and across the country, and not the special interests who control things in what used to be a great republic. Democracy was a good idea. I miss it, don't you?