Quote:
Originally Posted by rivalarrival
The single most effective thing we can do is reorganize our political representation so that it no longer supports a two-party-only system.
|
I agree that we need a viable 3rd party. But without term limits career politicians would simply migrate to the 3rd party when they cannot win a Democrat or Republican primary.
A viable 3rd party would be conservative on social issues and center-left on economic issues. Few Americans base their vote on social issues even though social conservatives outnumber moderates and liberals. Being conservative on social issues will not hurt a candidate on election day in most places. Both Florida and California passed constitutional bans on gay marriage in 2008 and a majority of blacks in California voted for the ban. But at the same time both states supported Obama despite the fact that he supports gay marriage because Obama is an economic liberal. If McCain had been less libertarian on economic matters, he would have given Obama a run for his money.
However, right now this country cannot afford to be too center-left on economic issues. We simply don?t have the money.
Quote:
|
Minor issues in each of the major parties are currently elevated to major importance.
|
What do you consider to be minor issues?
Quote:
|
The percentage of people with a strong opinion (either way) on abortion or gay marriage, for example, is nowhere near a majority.
|
Gay marriage has been voted down every time it has been put on the ballot. State legislatures have voted it down even after state courts have said it is OK.
And polls released just after the 2008 election indicated a pro-life majority (for the first time in abortion-poll history). A majority of Americans do not support abortion on demand, but most Americans vote according to economic issues, rather than social issues.
Quote:
|
Whatever party is currently in control is expected to push legislation supporting their position on these issues that are unimportant to a vast majority of the people.
|
I gave up on the Republicans ages ago. Republican office holders don?t want to end abortion because Republican candidates need the abortion issue to drive gullible conservatives to the polls on election day.
Quote:
|
With the existence of third parties, these issues can be suppressed.
|
Actually, historically speaking America?s 3rd parties have come about because the 2 major parties wouldn?t take up certain issues. But then all of America?s viable 3rd parties (except 1) have dissolved when one of the major parties have taken up the 3rd parties? issues. The only 3rd party in U.S. history that didn?t have its issues co-opted by a major party is the Republican Party. The Whigs wouldn?t take a stand on the extension of slavery into the territories and the Democrats took the wrong stand, so the Republicans became one of the 2 major parties.
Quote:
|
What I'm suggesting is not as radical a change as one might expect. Instead of voting for one congressman for your district, you vote for each congressional seat in your state.
|
You are calling for proportional representation. I support this idea as long as no candidate is barred from the ballot because he cannot pay a fee or submit enough petitions and as long as all votes for constitutionally eligible write-in candidates are counted.
But under the Constitution you do have the issue of choosing replacements when a Representative dies, resigns or goes to jail. A state-wide election for a single seat in the House, may not be all that practical.
I would also base how many seats a state gets in Congress on the number of votes that are cast. Say 1 representative for every 200,000 votes cast in the state?s last presidential election. Right now a state gets seats based only its population even when half or more of the state?s voters don?t bother to go to the polls.
Quote:
|
You, as an individual, are no longer represented by a single congressman - whose ideology may directly contradict your own - but by your state's entire congressional delegation.
|
I just turned 43. Apart from a few years I lived down state and out of state when I was a child, I have only had 3 U.S. Representatives because Florida used to be a one-party state and then my district has been racially gerrymandered since 1992. My mother, who moved to Florida in 1959 and is about to turn 60 has had these same 3 representatives.
Quote:
|
Isn't the purpose of a democratically elected government to represent the will of its people?
|
America is a republic, not a democracy. The Constitution was written for the express purpose of hampering the will of the majority so the nation as a whole cannot be damaged by the majority?s will.
Linear Mode
