We're living under a dictatorship: A two-party dictatorship.
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is wasting no time to start talking about 2016.
http://www.politico.com/...
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Just back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016.
Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol — and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign.
I should point out that prior to the 2000 Presidential Race, I was disillusioned with the Democratic Party and I didn't care much for the Republican Party either. However, when my mother and I were driving around Oakland, CA, good old 88.5 FM had Jesse Ventura on as a guest and both of us decided to listen while we had time to kill. Ventura, who had been elected in November 1998, was apart of the Reform Party then (now he's an Independent). On the radio, I found him to be refreshing and straight forward compared to most politicians who were running for office. And I agreed a lot with what he said.
However, this was when I was in my early 20's and since then, my political views have become more progressive overtime, particularly on global warming. Jesse Ventura also only served one-term as Governor and from what I understand, was not an effective Governor of Minnesota.
Furthermore, I think Jesse Ventura's argument of his disillusionment of politics in the last few years has made me even more skeptical about the ability of third party and even independent presidential candidates to be able to have any clout in the political discourse and why I believe this whole thing of a two-party dictatorship is really more about lack of information than anything else. Never once do people mention that Democratic U.S. Senators have been working with Independent U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on fighting Citizens United.
Let's first look at why third party candidates are failing to win anyone over with their arguments:
First, we have Jill Stein of the Green Party who, when she was running in 2012 seems to argue that there's no real difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, particularly with regards to taxes:
Here in the video Ms. Stein is being a partisan herself because she's not giving any real piece of evidence behind her claim. Democrats have been fighting for higher taxes for the wealthy for YEARS. And of course, Stein also mentioned last fall when she "ran for President" that the Democratic Party wants to gut Social Security. We know that the large majority of Democrats are strongly against this although Obama keeps promoting Chained CPI, which all of us Kossacks are against.
Then of course Rocky Anderson, former Mayor of Sale Lake City and the most anti-Iraq War Mayor in the U.S. decides to run for President in 2012 as well under the new Justice Party because he believes, yes, once again the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are limiting the democracy in the U.S.
Not sure what's going on in this "Justice Party" but it appears that Rocky Anderson may be fearing for his life and he believes, once again, like Jill Stein, that there is a two-party monopoly. He acts like a chicken and leaves the Democratic Party because apparently no one will listen to him when we know that's completely bogus. We've got Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, Tom Udall, Sheldon Whitehouse and other strong progressive U.S. Senators who fighting to overturn Citizens United. I bet Anderson didn't get the memo on that. Maybe he's scared of them too. Being a once liberal Democrat himself, I'm guessing Anderson hasn't heard of Daily Kos, a large community I hear where liberal and progressive Democrats unite to help elect not just Democrats but genuine Democrats and hold the national Democratic Party accountable if they are being too corporate. Maybe Rocky's scared of us too.
So what's his solution? Quit the Democratic party and run for President but instead of being presidential, it's more about proving what Jill Stein, Ralph Nader and many other third party "presidential candidates" have proven for years that the Democratic Party and Republican Party are no different from each other.
Hasn't really made much of a dent at all in the political discourse that we didn't know already. We know the Democratic Party and the Republican Party have a larger clout and coverage on the news in politics but the Democratic Party is also on the right side of the voting rights issue, Citizens United, global warming and a host of other issues. We also have do deal with quite a number of conservative constituents who aren't at all going to be swayed by third party presidential candidates' arguments given all they talk about is the "two-party dictatorship."
Now it seems Jesse Ventura is determined to do a run to confirm the same tired, unproductive old argument that we've heard before: Running against the two-party dictatorship.
http://www.politico.com/...
"The key to this next election I think will be a candidate who doesn't belong to a political party and who has the ability to rise above the mainstream and get the press, which I've never had a problem doing," Ventura said.
Ok. Right. We've heard that before: "Rise above the mainstream and get the press."
Simple answer to Jesse Ventura's motivation: Good luck.
And more, if Ventura is really convinced about being viable in 2016 as a presidential candidate, he has some serious explaining to do with his views on gun control, especially considering the recent Newton murders last December.
Look, don't get me wrong: I support third party presidential candidates getting the right to run for President and I wish they'd have the chance to participate in presidential debates.
However, I believe the point is, they need to think in reality, understand how to see what the needs are for Americans and be able to be on the right side of the issues (i.e., being sensitive and a human being). Third party presidential candidates also need to be able to have access to correct information and make objective decisions on it.
Unfortunately, the sad truth is that people like Jesse Ventura also have to deal with Congress, which by the way is gridlocked and filled with clusters of Tea Party Republicans. Given Ventura's relationship with the State Legislature in Minnesota when he was Governor wasn't the best, what makes anyone believe he's going to make it any better with Congress as President?
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/...
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A poll shows that for the first time since Gov. Jesse Ventura took office, more Minnesota voters disapprove than approve of his job performance.
The Star Tribune Minnesota Poll of 823 adults, with results released Wednesday, showed 43% approved of Ventura while 49% disapproved. In a February poll, 49% had approved of Ventura's performance and 42% had disapproved.
The Legislature's approval rating in the latest poll was 55%, marking the first time lawmakers have been more popular than a governor since 1990.
And it's funny how Ventura always had rifts with the State Legislature yet they had higher approval ratings than he did.
http://abcnews.go.com/...
He has not gotten along with members of the Minnesota Legislature, and his campaign vow to do away with one of its two chambers sullied relations with them from the start. By his account, the Legislature has frustrated several of his major proposals, but it has helped him with others. He is credited, most significantly, with persuading the state to reform its property tax structure.
In April, Ventura shut down the governor's mansion, saying the Legislature had cut his funding so much that he couldn't afford to keep it open to the public.
On Monday, state news media reported that the governor's son held Saturday night parties at the home without proper supervision from Ventura or his wife.
The Associated Press reported that a spokesperson for the governor acknowledged some property damage at the mansion that required "minor repairs."
So not only did Jesse Ventura not have a good relationship with the Legislature, he also was reported to be irresponsible with supervising his son over parties at the Governor's mansion.
Ouch. This is going to come back to haunt Ventura if he decides to run in 2016. And sadly, he's already been in office so he has a record to defend himself while he makes his case. He's also got to realize, he may have been elected in Minnesota but he hasn't toured other states around the country and met constituents. Different attitudes in each state as not everyone is a Minnesotan as he is.
And if Hilary Clinton runs in the 2016 and wins the Democratic nomination, Ventura's going to have a really tough time. In fact, Clinton will destroy him in the debates, particularly on gun control.