Florida ballot in 2012

Unfortunately, an election law bill passed by the Florida legislature this year, HB 1355, removes the Prohibition Party from the presidential part of the Florida ballot. Parties not recognized by the Federal Election Commission now need 335,000 valid signatures on a petition with their presidential nominee listed. Furthermore the petition needs about 10,000 signatures from each of 14 U.S. House districts, and no one even knows what the boundaries of those districts will be in 2012. There will be a lawsuit filed against that new law, which will probably win, so the Prohibition Party will probably gain its presidential ballot status back via the lawsuit.

Democracy in the US really is dead, isn't it?

Not dead, no. It's struggling; there's a two-party duopoly, which is unhealthy for the system as a whole, for both of those two parties, and for struggling third parties; and right now one of the two entrenched parties is out on the ideological fringe, which naturally tends to happen in this duopoly and is one of the reasons it's intrinsically unhealthy.

It's dead. Look at the electoral college and the lobbying industry. Pair that with the maintained voter apathy. The people in Washington (hell, even in state capitals) don't represent their constituents anymore, and it's becoming increasingly clear.

It's ironic that you say that on the same day that former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was convicted of corruption. (worse, he was convicted of trying to sell Obama's former Senate seat!) And the really sad part is that Illinois politics really hasn't seemed to change that much! :(

As much as we try to prevent it, the modern politician simply does not have the incentive to put his or her constituents before anything else! To extend my comments to a more nationwide perspective, take a look at Obama as an example. Despite all of his campaign promises, much of what he does now is political theater. The "beer summit" he held with that Harvard professor and the Cambridge cop was purely a PR stunt. The health care "debate" he held with congressmen from both parties was hardly a debate at all. Political debates, especially debates in Congress, have degenerated into prepared speeches. By the time the congressmen show up for "debate", they made up their minds on how they're going to vote already, and there really is no effort by anyone to persuade the other side about the merits of their own position.

All of this, however, is not a sign that democracy is dead, per se. Rather, it is a reminder to all of us about its harmful side effects. If you take a look at California's political system, you would see that direct democracies really aren't that great. Sure, the people get to vote on their own laws, and they do so only after vigorous debate throughout the state. But the resulting set of laws is one that not that many people are happy with, and the government is now stuck with a huge budget crisis.

So while it would be nice to give the electorate more choices in the ballot, I think we should be wary of any efforts to hand large, unrestricted powers to the people. That would be too far of a step beyond where we need to be.