Nyet!

I think all the Russian premiers during the Soviet era were ultimately canned by the party except for Stalin, who died in office.  The people only got to vote on their local leaders, who then elected district leaders, who then elected provincial leaders, who then elected national leaders.  There may have been more steps in the process, but you get the idea.  There was only one candidate on the ballot, and the people got to vote either "yes" or "no".  If the "no" votes won, the party would nominate another candidate and hold the election all over again. That seldom happened because the citizens were more or less forced to vote.  Well, not exactly forced, let's say "strongly encouraged".  Factories were shut down and the employees were marched through the snow to the polling place on election day, which couldn't have been lots of fun for them.  If they voted the candidate down, they would just have to march through the snow again to vote for somebody that probably wasn't a whole lot different than the one they rejected.  (I don't remember where I learned this, probably in school.)

In our system, it's just the opposite.  We get to vote on numerous candidates, many of whom I've never heard of, for numerous offices, many of which I'm not sure exactly what their job is.  If it wasn't for political parties, I don't know how I would decide who to vote for, except for the President, the Governor, and maybe Congress.  Many people can't even name their congressmen, much less the members of the Wayne State Board of Regents. (I'm not making this up, there really is such a thing in Michigan.)  Within the last few years,  Michigan passed a law that eliminated straight party voting.  The law was overturned by a court, then reinstated on an appeal, and ultimately overturned by ballot initiative.  I think the law was stupid myself.  People said that they did it to discourage Blacks from voting, but I'm sure that lots of White people vote straight party too.  Whatever were they thinking?

I'm with Uncle Ken on the TV advertising.  I listen to most of them once, and hit the "mute" button every time they come on after that.  I think you'd have a hard time banning or restricting that, though, because of freedom of speech issues.  What they might be able ban is those annoying robo calls.  I think any freedom of speech issues might be over ruled by right of privacy issues.  Calling me on the phone is not the same thing as broadcasting something on public media.

I get an extra 20 or 25 dollars in my Social Security check because of my veteran status.  I could get free medical care if I was poor, and I could have gone to college on the GI bill, but I didn't.