Democratic Elections

Our government is in the process of passing a new Electoral Finance Act. It limits the amount that people can spend on supporting political parties. It also allows the politicians to spend taxpayers money on their political campaigns. The whole process has been a circus. The bill has been ammended several, but lawyers say it still does not prevent the problems it was intended to resolve. This is normal democracy.

Bill Bonner was writing about America, but he describes the situation here very well.

If the idea of democracy is that voters put their heads together and select the most worthy candidate, the whole thing is a fraud. Just look at Congress. What voters really do is select the fellow with the best haircut, the best line of guff, or the smoothest fundraising machinery. And it helps to have name recognition. That’s how popular actors – such as Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger – were able to break into the business. People do not really select the best man for the job; they have no way of knowing what the job is or who would be best for it. Instead, they buy their candidates like bath soap...based on the jingle that most appeals to them.