Sortition Candidate
VP candidate for Nihilist Party (aka National Nihilist Party) (1988)
Running mate with nominee: Elisha Shapiro (b. ca1954)
Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
This profile is more about a concept than a candidate. The term "sortition" means "the action of selecting or determining something by the casting or drawing of lots," like we do with our jury selection system, or like military conscription during the Vietnam War era.
Los Angeles conceptual artist Elisha Shapiro ("A Dangerous Leader for Dangerous Times"), Presidential candidate of the Nihilist Party proposed that his Vice-President be selected by "a random national lottery, so everybody has an equal chance." He added his method was "a lot better way of choosing my Vice President than the Republicans. I'll have someone the people can really relate to, who is more stable."
There are a few Presidential candidates who made a deliberate point of not choosing a running-mate because they felt the office of Vice-President was not needed. But Shapiro was the first I am aware of to propose the concept of sortition as a method of selecting someone for the office. He also advocated this method of selection for most other federal positions.
But there were some government offices that Shapiro was not going to leave to chance and he announced his intended appointments, including: FBI Chief- Angela Davis, Ambassador to the USSR- Ted Koppel, Head of Joint Chiefs- David Byrne, Ambassador to South Africa- Louis Farrakhan, Press Secretary- Hunter Thompson, Chief Economic Advisor- Louis Rukeyser, Secretary of State- Bobcat Goldthwait, Poet Laureate- Patti Smith.
The Nihilist Party platform also had the following policy proposals:
THE GOVERNMENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM
"For one month every year, our government and the government of another country will change places. For example, the first year, for one month, our government will run the USSR, and the Soviet Government will run the US. This is a way to better understand the problems of peoples from other lands."
THE PENTAGON CHANGEOVER
"No one can get Congress to cut the Defense Department budget. The Pentagon employs too many people in too many states. But that doesn't mean we can't change what people in the Pentagon do. In the PENTAGON CHANGEOVER we don't fire anyone, we just give them useful jobs like making VCRs, telephone answering machines and personal computers. This will earn money for our government and reduce the deficit."
PROPOSED LEGISLATION
--Change American capital to Los Angeles.
--Change national bird to the Thunderbird.
--Play jazz-fusion, go to jail.
--A constitutional amendment making sodomy mandatory in Georgia.
--Limit capital punishment to inconsiderate driving infractions.
--Force the National League to expand to include a team for Havana and Managua.
NUKE ISLAND
"The nuclear arms stalemate will be resolved on NUCLEAR ISLAND. It will be an isolated island between the US and the USSR. The first American Nihilist Administration will disarm ten war heads and put them on the island. Then the bet will be to the Soviets. They can call or raise. The assumption is that their concern for public opinion won't let them fold. That's all there is to it. We bet, they raise, we raise and so on. They can keep making them and so can we--but they'll all end up on NUCLEAR ISLAND."
FOREIGN AID
"The American policy of supporting any regime or party which claims to be anti-Communist has landed our country in trouble many times since World War II. The Nihilist administration would radically change this approach to East/West competition and regional conflicts. Any country or party to which the Soviets give money would receive exactly the same amount of money from us. If the Soviets give the Nicaragua $100 million in an attempt to gain more influence than the US in that region, this bid would be quickly answered by a $100 million grant from the US. If the Soviets cynically switch sides and give $200 million to the Salvadoran government, we will answer this by an immediate $200 million gift to the Salvadorian government."
NEW NATIONAL HOLIDAYS
--TV Dinner Day
--Small Appliance Day
--100 Mile-an-Hour Day
--Automatic Weapon Day
--Sodomy Day
--Halloween
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Running as write-in, Shapiro told a reporter the day before Election Day, "We're a little behind in the polls, but we're about to make our move."
Election history: none
Other occupations: none
Buried: n/a
Notes:
Full disclosure. I have been an advocate for using the sortition method of filling some municipal and county offices on an experimental basis for several years.
