Lou Dobbs has immigration as his big issue. This disappoints me. Lou claims to be a vigorous independent who gives nobody a free pass. I believe he is an independent. And I love the idea of an aggressive independent who can give the lie to O’Reilly AND Keith Olberman. But immigration as the rallying issue is a disappointment for me. The issue I feel needs most attention from independents is election reform.

In the United States we don’t directly elect our President. And even if we did, the candidates for president are selected by a legally protected primary system that assures that only two parties have a candidate with a real chance of winning the presidency. Granted a Ross Perot or Ralph Nader can have an effect from time to time, but even those stalwarts have little real chance of winning.

We need to eliminate the electoral college and eliminate legal protections for the two-party system. We also need to eliminate the practive of gerrymandering and develop a fair process of redistricting. Granted prejudice will always exist in drawing these borders but we can do so much better than we do now.

Beyond that I believe proportional representation deserves exploration.

You can learn a lot more about real election reform at Fairvote.org.