With the recent election of Barack Obama, the United States got another glimpse at the chaos that occurs every four years in order to elect a man as president. The process is always very unnecessarily drawn out and particularly counter-productive. The problem with the election is that there’s a monopoly on the campaign industry. The two parties, this election, raised a little under one trillion dollars each. The next largest campaign is one led by Libertarian Gary Johnson with a whopping 1% of the vote. He was only able to raise about one million dollars for his campaign. How is a nation supposed to succeed when it stifles the voice of the people who simply can’t become a superpower the way only two parties have? It’s a monopoly, and monopolies breed corruption.

Many other countries have taken to much more sensible election processes. The United Kingdom limited the time frame from which candidates can run ads. Many other European nations have set limits on the amount of donations and amount of money a party can spend on campaigning, which raises another interesting point: Why is money even a factor in elections? Shouldn’t candidates be elected based on their intelligence and morality instead of how much money they can raise? It’s a popularity contest, with the winner becoming one of the most powerful men in the world.

Super PACs are another dangerous part of the campaigning process. They’re a way of sidestepping the Federal Election Campaign Act and the Federal Election Commission. They allow for unlimited political spending because they are “independent of the campaigns.” While Super PACs cannot directly advise a candidate, they allow corporations and labor unions to raise indefinite sums of money in order to support their candidate.

America needs to reform the election process. Electing should be broadened beyond “Democrat” and “Republican” and “liberal” and “conservative.” The world isn’t so black and white and neither are the decisions an elected official have to make. I suggest money and donations and campaigning be taken out of politics. Parties should have a limit in congress as to how many people from a certain party can be in office at a time. A candidate’s, “campaign,” should consist of the presidential debates and little else. This would all vastly help our country move forward.