Right now, campaigning is a house of mirrors in a bank of fog. Words are chosen with a lawyer's eye and a Madison Avenue ear. I'm not sure the candidates typically even know themselves where they stand on much of what's important to the public, but if they do, they sure aren't telling us in clear, unambiguous terms. Thus expectations and performance are secondary to image and appeal. The same shallow devices, cynical psychology, and stealthy methodologies, are used to "sell" a candidate as are used to sell any other products out there, from eyeliner to soda pop and fast food to automobiles and fantasy vacation cruises.
The candidate contract puts back front and center what a political campaign should be -- but rarely is -- all about, which is what exactly can we expect the candidate to do once he or she arrives in Washington DC.
Having the candidate contract be the new standard for electoral integrity, particularly having it arrive simultaneously from the two critical participants in the voting mechanism -- the issue focus groups among the voting public and the candidates themselves -- means it reflects the best traditions of the democratic process.
It represents a long-lost level of honesty and transparency, reintroduced into the necessary and most fundamental communication that takes place in the process of identifying and selecting the best person to do the work of the people in an official elected role.
The voters can and must probe the candidate: "Where do stand on this?"
And the 'good guy' candidate gets to reply: "Glad you asked. Just read my contract with you, the voters. It's all spelled out in black-and-white. That's my signature at the bottom."
If we as voters and those among us who aspire to be elected representatives turn our backs on this idea, during such divisive and perilous times, when we're starting to hear the early warnings of a death rattle from our sick and dying democracy, we will deserve the brutally totalitarian, crassly authoritarian, wantonly fascistic debacle our government-by-the-corporate-ruling-elite is fast becoming.
The time is right for candidate contracts.
Unless you have a better idea . . .
(Article changed on June 13, 2017 at 00:50)
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