One week ago, I wrote a blog entitled "Presidential Election 2016 — I Want Dozens Of Candidates To Declare Tomorrow" that was based on my premise that a small group of ultrawealthy people essentially choose our president before the public campaign for the presidency begins.
I wrote specifically "Presidential campaigns — or at least the part of them that involve talking to people in public — is way, way, way…………………………..way too short. The campaign for donors winnows the field from about 30 to under 10, many of whom are underfunded. Then, the voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and, perhaps, the dozen or so other states that vote on Super Tuesday ratify the donors’ choices."
The below article in The New York Times shows that I was correct. I am NOT happy that I am correct. I grew up thinking the USA was the best nation in the world, partly because of the strength of our democracy and the power of ordinary citizens to influence governmental policy.
Today, there are dozens of nations in the world with stronger democracies and our citizens have become so complacent that I bet that millions of people prefer the system described in the below article over a long, open and vigorous presidential campaign.
The USA is in trouble. Below is roughly the first half of the Dec. 8, 2014, article.
G.O.P. Donors Seek to Anoint A 2016 Nominee Early
Dozens of the Republican Party’s leading presidential donors and fund-raisers have begun privately discussing how to clear the field for a single establishment candidate to carry the party’s banner in 2016, fearing that a prolonged primary would bolster Hillary Rodham Clinton, the likely Democratic candidate.
The conversations, described in interviews with a variety of the Republican Party’s most sought-after donors, are centered on the three potential candidates who have the largest existing base of major contributors and overlapping ties to the top tier of those who are uncommitted: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney.
All three are believed to be capable of raising the roughly $80 million in candidate and “super PAC” money that many Republican strategists and donors now believe will be required to win their party’s nomination.
But the reality of all three candidates vying for support has dismayed the party’s top donors and “bundlers,” the volunteers who solicit checks from networks of friends and business associates. They fear being split into competing camps and raising hundreds of millions of dollars for a bloody primary that would injure the party’s eventual nominee — or pave the way for a second-tier candidate without enough mainstream appeal to win the general election.
“If you are philosophically a center-right donor, I think you have an interest in clearing the field,” said Bobbie Kilberg, a top Republican fund-raiser in Virginia with ties to Mr. Romney, the party’s 2012 nominee, and the Bush family. “I think that’s important because there is clearly going to be a competition of philosophies for who is going to be the presidential nominee. And I firmly believe that person has to be from the center right.”
But talk of an establishment coronation is likely to incur the wrath of party activists and outside groups seeking a more conservative nominee.
For the first time in decades, the Republican Party is facing a wide-open primary with up to a dozen serious candidates representing virtually every branch of the party. Republican leaders, hoping to minimize damage to their eventual standard-bearer, have already sought to compress the formal primary season and reduce the number of candidate debates.
With the midterms over, Mr. Christie and Mr. Bush have begun pushing top bundlers to commit to them in advance should they announce a White House bid, according to several donors, putting intense pressure on the corps of contributors who helped Mr. Romney and the Republican Party raise a billion dollars for the 2012 campaign. Those requests have intensified the discussion in some circles about whether to coalesce behind a candidate early or, alternatively, delay until after the early Republican debates next summer.
“What the donors are looking at is, how do we find someone we are confident can win and not get involved in 2015 with people just throwing money around?” said Ray Washburne, the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, who has met with most in the likely presidential field.
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