Americans Elect: Worth some cautious consideration

A few days ago I heard about Americans Elect. And the notion of it intrigued me enough that I spent some time this afternoon visiting its website, signing up and doing the "political colors" app.

So here's what Americans Elect is: an Internet-based political party, committed to nominating a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election. To that end Americans Elect is working to get on the ballot in every state of the union. So far they've met the qualifications to have ballot access in Arizona, Nevada, Kansas and Alaska... and they've just turned in enough to be listed in California, too. If Americans Elect has its way, a candidate meeting all the requirements to be President (and Vice-President) according to the United States Constitution will be up for election alongside the Republican and Democrat candidates. Supposedly, all of this is an effort to bust up the stranglehold that the two major parties have on American politics.

I gotta say: I love this idea a lot. But having visited the Americans Elect site and gone through all 64 questions determining where I am politically, I can't help but think that Americans Elect is being determined too much by the two-party duopoly. The questions given seem too centrist between the Left and Right... and I long ago abandoned that paradigm when I saw at last just how false it really is. Also, there are some questions as to how open Americans Elect is so far as its operations and policies are concerned.

Very few people will doubt that there is too much that is very, very wrong with our political process. The unaffiliated and those who try to challenge the system on their own have long been shut out by laws and procedures that both the Democrat and Republican parties have put in place to ensure that they are the only game in town. And that's wrong... damned wrong!

I don't know if Americans Elect is going to have much of an impact. The concept is right. And the time is fast becoming ripe for an overthrow of what is in effect a one-party rule of America.

I'm gonna say: check out Americans Elect if you feel so led, and investigate and feel free to arrive at your own conclusions. Personally I wish the organization well, and I sincerely mean that. But it shouldn't be afraid to not play by the rules of the Republicans and Democrats. Those two parties have wrecked the United States and the sooner their kleptocratic reign is toppled, the better!