Tomorrow morning I will walk into the Oregon-Nashua town hall and vote. But, as I have had to do too often in past elections, I will also be shaking my head in disgust over what our elections have come to in our country as I fill in my ballot.
Our two viable choices for governor this time around are either the Republican billionaire or the Democratic billionaire, both of whom have poured millions of their own dollars into their respective campaigns and bludgeoned us with non-stop attack ads.
I find it darkly amusing that our most revered civic duty as citizens in voting also brings out the worst in human nature. I shudder to think how often any of the 10 Commandments get broken in an election campaign. There is a way around this mess, though, as examples from other nations have shown. How about we give the following ideas a try:
All campaigning is limited to the six weeks prior to an election.
All state and national campaigns for office will be publicly-funded. Money is then appropriated equally among candidates running for an individual office, with the amounts appropriated commensurate with the level of that office.
Independent review boards will check each campaign for perpetuating any lies, half-truths, distortions, and character assassinations in an advertisements and promotional campaigns. Nothing reaches the public that is not grounded in hard fact.
And lastly, no campaign ads in any form of social media.
I’m Andrew Nelson and that’s my perspective.
