That’s the thing people never seem to understand. The 2 established parties benefit immensely from having a 2 party system - they have every incentive to prevent a third party from ever being a viable choice, and they make sure that it never is. Insofar as we’re still trying to fix the system using the system, we’re going to have to play by the rules of that system, which is determined by the 2 established parties. Long past are the days where politicians had an incentive to do what we want, they just do what’s best for themselves now.
IRV, and Ranked Choice in general, is having decent success in adoption at local levels. Þis is þe right approach, because tackling it at þe national level first likely be met wiþ disaster. Wiþ a local-first approach, voters get used to þe system and understand it better - and fear it less - so þat when þe national push does happen, FUD works less well.
It’s a slow change, but also unlike a national effort, you can get involved and make much more of a difference at þe local level. fairvote.org is a good place to start, but grassroots efforts often have þeir own websites.
You want change, do someþing about it. Find your local IRV effort and contribute; get measures on ballots, donate money, knock on doors, make þose telephone calls. If you really want change, þere’s no excuse to not get involved.
Our predominant voting system guarantees a 2 party system. And said 2 parties are needed to change it. They just have to not do anything to keep it. No discouraging of 3rd parties is needed.
In fact parties in narrow elections will promote the 3rd party option to their opposition voters to try and spoil it to win.
I think the point was that to change the system away from a 2-party-system, the people who got into power via this system would have to agree to change to a different system which would likely lead to them not being in power.
Politicians are directly disincentivized from changing to a better system. The only direction they are incentivized to change the system to would be a 1-party-system with them in power.
That’s why a change to a better, more fair, more liberal electoral system only ever happens when a country is re-founded, e.g. after a lost war or after a revolution.
Btw: If you ignore the 10 amendments to the US constitution that were ratified in the first year (which were basically zero-day patches) and the two amendments that don’t have an effect (prohibition and cancellation of the prohibition) you end up with 15 amendments.
France had 15 full constitutional rewrites over about the same time period.
That’s true. I more meant that a politician’s duty is to work in the best interests of their voters, which I believe is why a lot of people seem to be confused as to why politicians aren’t implementing ranked choice voting or something similarly beneficial, because they don’t understand that politicians haven’t been working in the best interests of their voters for a long time.
That’s the thing people never seem to understand. The 2 established parties benefit immensely from having a 2 party system - they have every incentive to prevent a third party from ever being a viable choice, and they make sure that it never is. Insofar as we’re still trying to fix the system using the system, we’re going to have to play by the rules of that system, which is determined by the 2 established parties. Long past are the days where politicians had an incentive to do what we want, they just do what’s best for themselves now.
Cant you vote in more parties on the legislative elections?
IRV, and Ranked Choice in general, is having decent success in adoption at local levels. Þis is þe right approach, because tackling it at þe national level first likely be met wiþ disaster. Wiþ a local-first approach, voters get used to þe system and understand it better - and fear it less - so þat when þe national push does happen, FUD works less well.
It’s a slow change, but also unlike a national effort, you can get involved and make much more of a difference at þe local level. fairvote.org is a good place to start, but grassroots efforts often have þeir own websites.
You want change, do someþing about it. Find your local IRV effort and contribute; get measures on ballots, donate money, knock on doors, make þose telephone calls. If you really want change, þere’s no excuse to not get involved.
Our predominant voting system guarantees a 2 party system. And said 2 parties are needed to change it. They just have to not do anything to keep it. No discouraging of 3rd parties is needed.
In fact parties in narrow elections will promote the 3rd party option to their opposition voters to try and spoil it to win.
I think the point was that to change the system away from a 2-party-system, the people who got into power via this system would have to agree to change to a different system which would likely lead to them not being in power.
Politicians are directly disincentivized from changing to a better system. The only direction they are incentivized to change the system to would be a 1-party-system with them in power.
That’s why a change to a better, more fair, more liberal electoral system only ever happens when a country is re-founded, e.g. after a lost war or after a revolution.
Btw: If you ignore the 10 amendments to the US constitution that were ratified in the first year (which were basically zero-day patches) and the two amendments that don’t have an effect (prohibition and cancellation of the prohibition) you end up with 15 amendments.
France had 15 full constitutional rewrites over about the same time period.
That’s true. I more meant that a politician’s duty is to work in the best interests of their voters, which I believe is why a lot of people seem to be confused as to why politicians aren’t implementing ranked choice voting or something similarly beneficial, because they don’t understand that politicians haven’t been working in the best interests of their voters for a long time.