I think it’s time for me to start a new series on this blog. Welcome to the first post in the Mr. Anarchist Keeps the Politicos Honest series. In this series I will take political maneuvering, speech, and other oddities and explain them in such a way that normal people can understand what’s actually going on.
On this maiden voyage I will be discussing the Minneapolis mayoral elections. A lot of butthurt is going around the politico circles as of late because the $20.00 filing fee has allowed almost anybody wanting to run for mayor to run for mayor. Now there is a proposal to raise the filing fee to $500.00.
Where the political deception enters is the justifications given by those advocating to increase in the filing fee. Some of these justifications are doozies. My favorite justification is that anybody unable to raise $500.00 will be unable to win an election so allowing them to run is a moot point. That justification implies that everybody who runs for mayor is doing so to win the race. Many people who run for office do so in an attempt to raise awareness of an issue. For example, a member of the Pirate Party may run to raise awareness of Hennepin County’s Sheriffs Departments widespread use of surveillance devices. Even though the Pirate Party candidate knows he can’t win he feels that this issue would otherwise remain entirely ignored during the mayoral debate.
But that doesn’t matter because the people arguing in favor of the filing fee are really using their justifications to coverup their true intent. You see, for many people, the only thing worse than a dictatorship is having too many options for rulers. They want democracy but not too much democracy. What these people really want is their person to be the ruler but also to maintain the illusion of democracy. Every additional name on the ballot, at least in their eyes, stands the potential to harm their desired ruler’s chances of obtaining power. They believe other candidate could take away votes from their desired ruler or another potential ruler could win against their desired ruler. Of course the ideal solution would be to have a ballot composed only of candidates from their preferred political party. That way the illusion of choice is maintained and no result will go against their political desires too much.
In layman’s terms they want to eliminate their desired ruler’s potential competitors. Raising the filing fee would get rid of some of the, shall we say, riffraff. After all, if a candidate isn’t on the ballot they can’t win the election. The first step to ensuring their desired ruler wins is to eliminate as many challengers as possible.
I’m not asking everybody to oppose raising the filing fee. The only thing I’m asking is to dump the political deception and express intentions honestly.