Thursday, March 04, 2004
Real Solution No.1: Electoral Reform
With political acrimony at near record levels, it's good to know that there are a lot of very do-able, cost effective ways to fix what ails our country.
Too often we lefty types are pinned with the charge of shouting too many complaints and suggesting too few solutions. Sadly, there's some truth to that--although I feel that we tend to get a bit defensive because our ideas are never actually given a full and free chance to succeed in the first place.
Nevertheless, let's move to ideas of electoral reform. Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel (spell that with a belly full of Heineken!) takes up a valid criticism of the current and past Nader campaign, which champions electoral reform but gives it little voice outside of a mention on a web site. Vanden Heuvel outlines some common sense reforms that Democrats and Republicans alike should have no trouble getting behind--Instant Runoff Voting, Proportional Representation, Honest Redistricting, and Multi-Seat Districts. What's great about this March 2nd post is that it is very well linked, so topic titles lead to organizations that are working hard on each of these issues.
And in the end, that's what it will take--it's more a basket of ideas rather than a single solution well-tailored to a sound bite that will start to fix our ills.
The problem is that we are voting less and less, and have less and less real electoral choice with each passing election. I urge everyone to take a look at these simple proposals and consider calling a representative about them. These aren't glamour topics and it's unlikely that there will ever be some real crisis to bring them into quick focus. Therefore, it's incumbent upon all of us to consistently keep these topics in our minds and in front of our elected officials. They are the building blocks of stable and enduring deep democracy that our nation needs to engender.
For a far more thorough analysis of these topics, please see Kevin Hill's thoughtful book Fixing Elections.
With political acrimony at near record levels, it's good to know that there are a lot of very do-able, cost effective ways to fix what ails our country.
Too often we lefty types are pinned with the charge of shouting too many complaints and suggesting too few solutions. Sadly, there's some truth to that--although I feel that we tend to get a bit defensive because our ideas are never actually given a full and free chance to succeed in the first place.
Nevertheless, let's move to ideas of electoral reform. Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel (spell that with a belly full of Heineken!) takes up a valid criticism of the current and past Nader campaign, which champions electoral reform but gives it little voice outside of a mention on a web site. Vanden Heuvel outlines some common sense reforms that Democrats and Republicans alike should have no trouble getting behind--Instant Runoff Voting, Proportional Representation, Honest Redistricting, and Multi-Seat Districts. What's great about this March 2nd post is that it is very well linked, so topic titles lead to organizations that are working hard on each of these issues.
And in the end, that's what it will take--it's more a basket of ideas rather than a single solution well-tailored to a sound bite that will start to fix our ills.
The problem is that we are voting less and less, and have less and less real electoral choice with each passing election. I urge everyone to take a look at these simple proposals and consider calling a representative about them. These aren't glamour topics and it's unlikely that there will ever be some real crisis to bring them into quick focus. Therefore, it's incumbent upon all of us to consistently keep these topics in our minds and in front of our elected officials. They are the building blocks of stable and enduring deep democracy that our nation needs to engender.
For a far more thorough analysis of these topics, please see Kevin Hill's thoughtful book Fixing Elections.
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