EXISTING DEFICIENCIES
The present system of mass voting does not adequately support the the voter's ability to exercise intelligent executive level decision making when voting. The problems causing this are getting worse.
1. Money greatly affects election outcome and gives those with it special power. Expensive media coverage is increasingly required for a political candidate’s message to achieve wide voter exposure and to balance coverage purchased by opponents. Consequently those with more money, now including corporations, are special groups that can purchase influence much greater than that of ordinary citizens. History teaches that when special groups are given special powers they advance their own interests, often at the expense of the rest.2. Raising money preoccupies and compromises candidates and elected officials. Raising money takes time and energy. It usually requires alteration in goals, priorities, and obligations. After elected, politicians immediately begin to line up more money for their re-election. As the character Gold said in, As Good As Gold, “The only responsibility of office is to stay in office”. (Joseph Heller November 12th 1997). Even nobly motivated politicians must deal with the fact that if they are not elected or re-elected, they will not have the power to implement any of their goals.3. The media intermediates between the public and the candidates, issues, facts, and fictions. Paid media advertising is purchased and broadcasts virtual anything paid for. Unpaid media has often been more objective and broadly informative. When unpaid media provides intelligent discussion, separates opinions from facts, and includes accurate information sourced and fairly presented, their inter-mediation is beneficial. It can be so important that new democracies may be handicapped by not having an objective, educated, and informed media intermediary. In some ways the increase in easily accessible specialized media has decreased listeners exposure to the unadulterated facts. In the past there were far fewer media sources. For several decades in the US there were only three major TV broadcast networks. News programs often achieved the highest viewership. Network economic interests were maximized by obtaining the largest market share. This required providing broad news coverage that was perceived as a fair and objective by most potential viewers.Today the large number of news sources makes this no longer true. The balkanization of the media has been made possible by cable TV, the Internet, and specialized talk radio, and now talk TV. Today it is possible for entertaining personalities to obtain an economically valuable share of the “news” market even if it is a small percentage of the total. This can be achieved by appealing to viewer’s emotions with little regard for reality, reason, or fairness. The fact that the majority might view such programing as incomplete, inaccurate and highly biased is not a deterrent if you can be successful by appealing to your limited target. Some media personalities provide whatever interpretations, theories, or even outright fictions their audience enjoys or responds to. In this way some media personalities are paid gossips eager to create, repeat, or exaggerate any provocative rumors or suppositions, because it allows them to increase their audience...and make more money. For some viewers this “entertainment media” may become their only source of “news” information; therefore they do not have a balanced exposure to the facts.Relying on voters who’s primary information may be very distorted is subject to what engineers call: “GIGO” Garbage In Garbage Out. Our present voting system is analogous to allowing jurors in a trial to vote solely on pieces of public media or gossip acquired from only those sources that by chance or choice they have happened to hear, without attending a trial and receiving exposure to other facts, arguments, and the unfiltered parties.4. Communication between candidates and voters is increasingly reduced to shorter and shorter sound bites. In 1968 the average sound bite was over 43 seconds long; in 1988 it was less than 10 seconds, and in 1992 about 7.2 seconds. (source: The Washington Post reported research by Kiku Adatto of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at Harvard University, entitled: “The Incredible Shrinking Sound Bite.” ) Are seven second sound bights the best way to learn about and evaluate complex issues? Some sound bites are now being replaced by even shorter image bites or 140 character Tweets.5. Trivial power engenders trivial responsibility. It is recognized (as Spider Man’s uncle told him): “With great power comes great responsibility”. The converse is: Trivial power engenders trivial responsibility. Under the present system of mass voting the actual power of a single vote is trivial. "It may cause despair, but the noble vote has become like a cheer from a spectator seated in the rear." (From Tribunocracy- The Poem)