Steve writes: "Gary and Jill (and the others) may be irrelevant in the sense that neither has a chance of "winning the contest", but I would claim that yet another presumed irrelevant (Bernie Sanders) HAS significantly shaped the discussion and possibly the shape of Hillary's platform and possibly even policy once in office. I also believe that they are reshaping the field itself. Jill has been promoting ranked choice voting for months now... THAT is a significant change to the playing field and one that I claim will help our elections more accurately reflect "the will of the people" rather than distort and manipulate it." Bernie's campaign was exciting and it seems Hillary did benefit from his constituents tactics and enthusiasm. (We'll see tonight how some undecided voters split in battleground states.) In the end, the average donation to Hillary's campaign was $43 (over more than 3 million people). Seems to me it could scale to billion dollar campaign costs if everyone was engaged. And the `market' could be much more interesting with ranked choice voting (and a richer ecology of fundraising). I think there is an aspect of governing that is about maturity, patience, long term relationships, and knowing how to work the system, and that is an area I believe the less experienced participants like Jill Stein will have no chance for some time. Bernie was a plausible candidate because he knew his way around Washington.
Marcus
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