Greens Laud Independent Gubernatorial Candidates ARTH & KHAVARI; Call For Election System Overhaul

The vast amounts of corporate money poured into campaigns, ruled "free speech" by the Supreme Court, effectively shuts out candidates with a non-corporate agenda, that is, candidates with a people centered program, whose human free speech has been shouted down by bought and paid for corporate speech.

Independent and third party candidates are seen as potentially taking votes from one of the major party candidates and causing the opposing major party candidate to win, described as "splitting the vote" and "spoiling" the election. Bud Chiles' campaign gave this explanation for the cessation of his independent candidacy, that it might draw votes from Democrat Alex Sink and help elect Republican Rick Scott. Chiles supporters would have been faced with the dilemma, vote for Chiles & maybe help elect Scott, or vote for Sink, the lesser evil, and forsake expressing their true wishes. This is an unnecessary penalty, easily remedied by up to date voting systems such as IRV (see below).

Our antiquated, gerrymandered, corporate dominated, fear-based voting system is calculated to frustrate the true will of the electorate. "We the People" have been shut out of what has become a "cosmetic democracy." Our election system is not worthy of a nation that considers itself the beacon of democracy to the world. It is long overdue for an overhaul, top to bottom.

Before making some recommendations for electoral reform, let's take a brief look at what we're missing in the public discourse from the Arth and Khavari campaigns, that we're not getting in our corporate media.

Farid Khavari's approach to resolving our economic woes is stunningly refreshing. He has written a book: "Towards a Zero-Cost Economy - A Blueprint to Create General Economic Security in a Carefree Economy." It can be downloaded for free at http://www.zerocosteconomy.com/. He says there are too many costs in our system. "The goals of a zero-cost economy are to freeze costs initially (not to be confused with prices), then reduce them, and finally (if possible) eliminate them altogether. The three goals of the Khavari economic plan are:

1.  To create income for all Floridians;
2.  To reduce the cost of living for all Floridians;
3.  To help all Floridians accumulate and protect true wealth for retirement.

Khavari favors creating a Florida state bank, owned by the people, not part of the commercial banking system, which he calls the Citizen's United Financial Institution. "The people of Florida will run and own this institution. Its profits will be used to benefit the people and businesses of Florida. In other words: This institution will create income and allow the savings of the people and the state to grow, creating economic security for all Floridians." Khavari points out that North Dakota has had a similar system for a long time, and has more than weathered the economic slump.  Far smaller than Florida, North Dakota has only 4% unemployment and a $5 billion surplus!

At http://www.khavariforgovernor.com/ you'll find an elaboration on eleven areas that will benefit from Khavari's plan.

Michael E. Arth has created an award winning film, "New Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism," about his experiences in sparking the resurrection of a crack torn neighborhood into a welcoming & flourishing village. "Reborn as The Garden District, it is now a living laboratory demonstrating Michael's 'New Pedestrianism,' an ecological and pedestrian-friendly vision (of New Urbanism) for towns and neighborhoods."

Arth considers himself "an artist, home, landscape & urban designer, green builder, social activist and analyst, filmmaker, futurist, public speaker, and author." You'll find his views on a range of issues at http://www.michaelearth.org/org/issues-1.html, which are elaborated upon in his latest book, “Democracy and the Common Wealth, Breaking the Stranglehold of the Special Interests” and also in his upcoming book "The Labors of Hercules: Modern Solutions to 12 Herculean Problems."

Greens find agreement with Arth on most issues, such as:

• Energy:  "The "Sunshine State" should up live to its motto and move toward a solar economy, the energy of the future."
• Hometown Democracy:  "I support citizen's efforts to approve changes in the comprehensive plan for their town or county."
• Gay Rights:  "I support equal rights, including marriage, for gays. I reject intolerance based on gender or sexual orientation."
• Single Payer Healthcare:  "Europeans spend half (what we do), cover everyone, get better care, and live longer. Our private health care system is broken and tinkering will not fix it."

Obviously, both of these candidates have a solid contribution to make to our governance. Just imagine their participation in public debates, imagine seeing their ads on TV, and imagine voting for either of them without fear of electing your idea of a worse evil. That's why electoral reform is probably the highest order of the day in achieving anything like real democracy. Here are some elemental requisites.

1.  Get corporate money out of politics: which ultimately means recalling "personhood" status of corporations, as ruled by the courts, with a Constitutional amendment. See www.MovetoAmend.org

2.  Public financing of elections: Level the playing field, and open up the process to wider voices/choices. Spending public money this way is far cheaper than the hidden corporate subsidies we pay now.

3.  Require the media, which uses the publicly owned air waves cheaply, to provide free air time for public debate and airing of candidate positions (not political attack ads). This should be seen as a matter of civic responsibility of the media, as some form of return for use of public assets.

4.  Eliminate Gerrymandering, voting districts designed to eliminate competition and minority representation: Support Amendments 5 & 6 on the 2010 Florida ballot.

5.  Institute Instant Runoff Voting (IRV): In single seat races with three or more people running, under our current plurality voting system, two bad things can happen: One, the winner is not likely to get majority support when it's possible to win with just over a third of the vote (or less, if multiple candidates are competing). The common consequence is minority rule. Two, a populace candidate will be perceived to draw votes from one of the major party contenders, causing the opposing "worse evil" to win. IRV resolves both issues, minority rule & spoiling, by employing a ranked choice method. Winners will always get a majority, while allowing supporters of independent and third party candidates to vote for them without fear of spoiling. True support for all candidates will be clear, whereas it is perverted in our current system, corralled into one or the other of the money-based mainstream party candidates. Actually, the mainstream parties would benefit from IRV, not being threatened by the spoiling of indy & third party rivals. See www.FairVote.org.

6.  Proportional Representation: Ultimately, an elected body should represent a cross section of the interests of the electorate, most easily allocated by the percentage of votes political parties receive.

7.  Transparent Mechanics: No voting machines with proprietary software (both owned and operated by corporate interests), because they are inherently incapable of honest review. Paper ballots with mandatory audits are essential.

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The goal of representative democracy is to have candidates and office holders that can successfully run and truly represent the interests of the people. So we should be striving to open up the political process to more voices, and more candidates that can address issues skirted by the dominant party duopoly, and offer alternatives the corporate parties work to suppress. Our electoral process should be constructed to allow these voices to compete on a level playing field, and to enable those voices that reflect the people's will to win.

If we accomplish that (with electoral reforms), more people will show an interest in the electoral process, and begin to participate, their faith being restored that it's not a rigged game.