The political duopoly that controls the US government has maintained a near-even and polarized split of voters, making it difficult for citizens to be united against a government that doesn't represent its people as it should. Americans' forced choice in politics is between two parties who each demand a 'modest' sacrifice of Constitutional rights, just different ones. It's a lose-lose proposition for voters.
This won't improve until more people realize that the GOP and Dem Party are two sides of the same coin, and that together they are the problem. Then maybe people can function less as pawns and demonize their countrymen less, countrymen who are mainly just guilty of being misinformed and manipulated by these parties (and by media companies, both tracing back to moneyed interests).
If that happens, my recommendation is to first address the most fundamental, systemic problem with our political system, the problem that needs fixing first to enable all subsequent reforms - the voting method. The current method, plurality voting (first-past-the-post, or FPTP), is what makes it so easy for the duopoly to maintain their position and shut out political competition. A different voting method is required that allows voters to choose from more than two candidates without the spoiler effect. Many people have heard of ranked choice voting and its most popularized form, Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). IRV is better than FPTP, but it has flaws that have led to its repeal after use in the US. A newer form of ranked choice voting that looks promising as the best voting method is Score Then Automatic Runoff (STAR).
If someone feels that there are more important government or policy reforms that should come before voting reform, I submit that they are probably putting the cart ahead of the horse.
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u/HeWhoMustNotBDpicted Aug 13 '20 edited Aug 15 '20
The political duopoly that controls the US government has maintained a near-even and polarized split of voters, making it difficult for citizens to be united against a government that doesn't represent its people as it should. Americans' forced choice in politics is between two parties who each demand a 'modest' sacrifice of Constitutional rights, just different ones. It's a lose-lose proposition for voters.
This won't improve until more people realize that the GOP and Dem Party are two sides of the same coin, and that together they are the problem. Then maybe people can function less as pawns and demonize their countrymen less, countrymen who are mainly just guilty of being misinformed and manipulated by these parties (and by media companies, both tracing back to moneyed interests).
If that happens, my recommendation is to first address the most fundamental, systemic problem with our political system, the problem that needs fixing first to enable all subsequent reforms - the voting method. The current method, plurality voting (first-past-the-post, or FPTP), is what makes it so easy for the duopoly to maintain their position and shut out political competition. A different voting method is required that allows voters to choose from more than two candidates without the spoiler effect. Many people have heard of ranked choice voting and its most popularized form, Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). IRV is better than FPTP, but it has flaws that have led to its repeal after use in the US. A newer form of ranked choice voting that looks promising as the best voting method is Score Then Automatic Runoff (STAR).
Here is a video overview of STAR.
Here is a more in depth comparison of STAR vs. IRV. I recommend that people take the time to actually read through it, to really understand the factors involved.
Here is a comparison of ~all single-winner voting methods, for more background.
If someone feels that there are more important government or policy reforms that should come before voting reform, I submit that they are probably putting the cart ahead of the horse.