One issue many people claim to have with our government is the difficulty that third party candidates face in getting recognition.
My proposal is for a TV show in the same vein as American Idol. The idea would not be for the show to replace voting, but rather to increase awareness.
The show would start with 30 some odd third party presidential candidates. The first episode would be designed to let the viewers know a bit about each candidate as a person. The next one would give a brief overview of their political stances. After that each following episode would focus on a particular issue and the candidates would make their views known.
There would be no first party candidates on the show. Furthermore to prevent people from rallying behind party names, the contestant party affiliations would not be revealed until a few episodes in. Granted people could just look them up online, but most viewers wont.
After each episode people would vote by texting their favorite candidate. As the show went, a candidate would be eliminated each week Near the end when only a few candidates remained they could engage in head to head debate.
Viewers would also be able to vote on which issues they would want to see on the show.
Now there are issues with this. I'm not necessarily sure that this is the way I would want my president selected, but thats not the goal. The voting mechanism could also end up having the voting being manipulated, but once again, that is why it would not be official.
Contestants would agree not to do outside campaigning while the show was running. As a nice twist the network that is hosting the show could contribute commercial time to the campaign of the winning contestant.
It might not have any impact on politics in America. In fact such a show could further contribute to the sensationalizing of politics. However, it just might have a positive impact and maybe could make some network money.
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Have comments about my ideas? If you see something wrong with them, leave a comment. I'll try to comment back. If you have seen these ideas implemented/mentioned somewhere before, leave a comment. I like to think I am 'original' but that doesn't mean somebody has not beaten me to the punch. Finally, if you just have something to say, well comment that as well.