Ten Steps To Repair American Democracy
Imagine it is Election Day 2016. Imagine yet another presidential election boiling down to the same two battleground states—Ohio and Florida—that have tilted three of the last four elections, a not-unrealistic scenario, given current demographic trends. Candidates will spend most of their time in these two states and perhaps a handful of other swing states, ignoring all the others. Visits to our largest states (e.g., California, Texas, and New York) will include only select zip codes known as fund-raising mother lodes. The Florida and Ohio electorates will be sliced and diced into bite-sized targets of swing voters at which will be aimed carefully crafted campaign missiles.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12920-10-steps-to-repair-american-democracy
As a sidenote, I have a petition on signon.org to "restore our airwaves" (http://signon.org/sign/restore-the-airwaves) in an attempt to take back the corporate media--and counter the Pigman, Lavin, Hannity, and the other filth we hear. A proposal I raised a few years ago (and I should create a petition for this too) is to allow "free" airtime to candidates seeking office. This would be a giant leap toward eliminating the money needed to advertise--and eliminate the issue ad's from PAC's on radio and TV. If we roll back the Communications Act of 96 and include this free airtime proposal, it would be a big step forward for our democracy.