I have come to wonder recently if we're not going about this election thing in entirely the wrong way. We keep trying to come up with more and better Democratic allies to beat Republicans with. Maybe we should start trying to come up with more and worse (or even better, someday, better!) opponents to our left to run against.
So, as an example of this concept, I introduce to you the Ventura 2012 campaign, complete with its nonsense motto made up by me half an hour ago: "If not now, sklort?"
Of course, you might complain that such a motto has no content, just as you've heard and seen Ventura as purely a cartoon character and pro wrestler. My response would be, "Yeah, and?" That's what Democrats want in 2012, isn't it? A shadow candidate on the left to run against, to sap off all the energy that #occupy would otherwise be throwing at Obama and incumbent Dems?
Still, it is conceivable that if he entered into the race, by some improbable set of circumstances he might win. So let's take a look at Wiki to find out his positions. (I know, I know. Who cares about his positions, except the voters, amirite? Bear with me.)
Political positions
As Minnesota Governor, Ventura succeeded in several initiatives. One of the most notable was the rebate on Sales tax. In each year of his administration, Minnesotans received a tax-free check in the late summer.[38] The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often admitted that he had not formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Ventura frequently described himself as "fiscally conservative and socially liberal."[39] He selected teacher Mae Schunk as his running mate.
Later, he came to support a unicameral (one-house) legislature, property tax reform, gay rights, and abortion rights. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, he affirmed his support of gay rights, including gay marriage and gays in the military, humorously stating he would've gladly served alongside homosexuals when he was in the Navy as they would've provided less competition for women.[40] While funding public school education generously, he opposed the teachers' union, and did not have a high regard for the public funding of higher education institutions. Additionally, Ventura supported the use of medicinal marijuana,[41] advocated a higher role for third parties in national politics, and favored the concept of instant-runoff voting.
Ventura was elected on a Reform party ticket, but he never received support from Ross Perot's Texas faction. When the Reform party was taken over by Pat Buchanan supporters before the presidential elections of 2000, Ventura left the party in February 2000, referring to it as "hopelessly dysfunctional". However, he maintained close ties to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which also broke from the Reform party around the same time.
Despite being a supporter of third parties in the past, in 2010 Ventura advocated that all political parties, including third parties, be abolished. Feeling that the two-party system has corrupted the government, Ventura has expressed concern that if a third party became as successful as the Republicans and Democrats, it "will likewise have to corrupt itself. If you already have a two-headed monster, why would you need three?"[42]
Lacking a party base in the Minnesota House and Senate, Ventura's policy ambitions had little chance of being introduced as bills. Initially, the residents of Minnesota feared Ventura's vetoes would be overturned. He vetoed 45 bills in his first year, and only three of those vetoes were overridden. The reputation for having his vetoes overridden comes from his fourth and final year, where six of his nine vetoes were overturned.[43] He vetoed a bill to require recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools.[44]
During the first part of his administration, Ventura strongly advocated for land-use reform and substantial mass transit improvements, such as light rail.[45] He made the light rail project a priority, obtaining additional funding from the Minnesota state legislature to keep the project moving. The Hiawatha Line was completed in 2004.
During another trade mission to Cuba in the summer of 2002, he denounced the economic sanctions of the US against that country.[35]
Stimulus? Gay rights? Legalized pot? Oh the horrors!
To be totally serious here at the end, I haven't looked over his record and I don't know whether I could even bring myself to vote for him. But we need to totally rethink the way we're doing politics, and you don't get much further outside the box than Jesse "The Governing Body" Ventura. :-)