Commentary by Jim Hightower
VOTE FOR NOTA
Wednesday, May 29, 1996
As Yogi Berra said," It's deja vu all over again."
The presidential campaign I mean. You thought Clinton, Bush and Perot were an uninspiring
choice in '92? Well that was a heart-stopping thriller compared to what '96 has in store
for you: Clinton, Dole and
Perot. As Peggy Lee sang years ago: [Music: "Is that all there is? . . . "]
According to pollsters (and according to commonsense), most Americans really would prefer
to cast their ballots for NOTA. Who's that? None Of The Above . . . N-O-T-A.
Well, why not -- why shouldn't there be a NOTA line on the ballot in all elections? This
would give us a chance to register our disgust about today's unresponsive political
system, a chance to cast a
"no-confidence" vote and have it count.
Common Cause, the election watchdog, reports that 90 percent of today's congressional
races are non-competitive, meaning the incumbents either have no opponents, or their
opponents are hopelessly
under-financed, effectively giving you no choice. But with NOTA, you would always have a
choice, and incumbents would always run scared, knowing they have to give you real reasons
to be for them, or
you'll just vote for None Of The Above. No more taking us voters for granted.
If NOTA wins, a new election would have to be held with all new candidates -- the rejected
ones would have been dismissed and could not re-run in this election cycle.
This is not the total answer to America's democratic ills, by any means -- we still have
to get Money out of politics and make it easier for third parties to get on the ballot,
for example -- but NOTA is a step
in the right direction.
This is Jim Hightower saying . . . To learn more about putting NOTA on the ballot, contact
Congressional Accountability Project at 202/296-2787.