December 2016
In 2014, President Obama passed an executive
order—a president’s ability to enact a law without
the approval of the legislative branch—that gave
the undocumented parents of children born in
the United States a path to obtain work visas. The
plan here was for a Democratic President to go
around a Republican Congress.
advancement options that would allow people
caught in the transition to have the time, space
and tools to thrive. It’s left a lot of people dizzy
and dislocated.” If you don’t have a job or you
feel that you have no chance to compete, you are
going to be frustrated and justifiably so.
The campaign is too long
Political party division is just one example.
Possibly more important is the division between
rural and urban America. Hillary Clinton won
the urban vote by 59-35%. Donald Trump won
the suburbs 50-45% (this was a strong Obama
group in 2008 & 2012) and rural areas 62-34%.
This became obvious in states like Michigan,
W i s c o n s i n ,
Pennsylvania and
Ohio.
Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy on
April 12, 2015. Donald Trump waited a couple
more months and made his announcement on
June 16, 2015. That is 19 months and 16 months
respectively spent campaigning. According to The
Toronto Sun, the most recent election in Canada,
which was the third
longest in its history,
was 74 days. It is
reasonable to ask
whether it takes
more than 18
months to learn
about candidates.
“Finding a way to
shrink the time of the
primaries might cut
down on negative
campaigning.”
This division can be
seen in many areas.
The urban areas
are more diverse,
include a mixture
of races and
religions, and tend
to include more
college graduates
that are able to find
jobs in the new
g l o b a l i z e d
economy. The rural
community, and to
some degree the suburban communities in the
Midwest, have been hit hard by globalization and
the changes in manufacturing.
While it is not
feasible to conduct
a presidential
election in one
month, we could
consolidate the time
frame. I am fairly
confident that the
American people
could learn enough about potential candidates in
4-6 months.
Most of this time occurs during the primaries,
which aren’t even part of the constitution or the
federal government. They are run by state party
systems. The actual time from the nominating
conventions in late July to the election in
November is much more reasonable. Finding a
way to shrink the time of the primaries might cut
down on negative campaigning. If a candidate
only had a few months to get a message across,
the focus might be more on actual policy than
berating the opponent.
The New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman
said, “It’s the story of our time: the pace of
change in technology, globalization, and climate
have started to outrun the ability of our political
systems to build the social, educational,
community, workplace and political innovations
needed for some citizens to keep up. We have
globalized trade and manufacturing, and we have
introduced robots and artificial intelligence
systems far faster than we have designed the social
safety nets, trade surge protectors and educational
5
!