{"id":734,"date":"2010-12-22T14:12:49","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T14:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/why-majority-vote-rules-will-address-important-weaknesses-in-our-country.html"},"modified":"2010-12-22T14:12:49","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T14:12:49","slug":"why-majority-vote-rules-will-address-important-weaknesses-in-our-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/why-majority-vote-rules-will-address-important-weaknesses-in-our-country.html","title":{"rendered":"Why majority vote rules will address important weaknesses in our country"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

This post addresses some questions readers asked in a previous one<\/a>.  <\/p>\n

Today a majority of Americans are
\nthoroughly fed up with both major parties, with the Republicans even more than with the
\nDemocrats.  <\/span>Yet these toxic
\ndinosaurs run no risk at all of ceasing to be the two big players in American
\npolitics, as they have been since the Civil War.  <\/span>The plurality voting rules in this country are the reason
\nwhy.  <\/span>When whoever gets the most
\nvotes wins, which is what plurality voting is, if you vote for a third party
\ncloser to your position, the main party farthest from your position gains because
\nthat vote would otherwise have gone – if you vote at all – to the other
\nparty.  <\/span>Majority vote with instant run-off changes this dynamic at a
\ndeep and lasting level.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

With majority vote rules for
\nelections  <\/span>a vote for Nader or
\nanyone else will not help your opposition politically in any sense.  <\/span>If one of the two main parties gets a
\nmajority, the outcome compared with a plurality election will be the same.  <\/span>But if no one gets a majority, then (to
\nsimplify but not distort) instant run off rules count voters’ second choices as
\nwell.  <\/span>This means <\/p>\n

1<\/b>. A candidate may need other party
\nvoters to win.  <\/span>In order to get
\nthem he or she has to treat the issues they raise explicitly and would be well
\nadvised not to trash their candidate. As a result issues will be discussed that
\nnormally would not get discussed.<\/p>\n

2<\/b>. Other party supporters will be
\nencouraged to vote their real preferences, and make the main party candidate a
\nsecond choice.  <\/span>In doing so we will
\nrapidly see that third parties have a lot more support that currently seems
\nto be the case<\/i>.  <\/span>This is because under current rules I may prefer Greens or
\nLibertarians or something, but never vote for them because I don’t want to help
\nthe other main party.  <\/span>Both
\nRepublicans and Democrats have lost who absent the third party would have won.
\nThis, by the way, is why I almost never vote a third party even though I LOATHE
\nthe main parties although I did vote for the fraud Obama.  Given the alternative I still would have voted Democratic – but against McCain not for Obama.  <\/span>I primarily vote
\nfor self-defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/b>  <\/span>Because they have a chance, third parties will attract
\ncandidates who are in it for more than ego and warm tingly feelings of
\nself-righteousness. We will get a pool of more competent candidates. This will
\nmake them more effective in attacking the positions of main parties. <\/p>\n

4<\/b>. Over time ‘third parties’ will
\nget more strongly established in the public eye, win elections, and provide
\ngenuine competition to the corporatists. 
\n<\/span>Given current levels of disgust with corporations, banks, and the main
\nparties it might not take much time.<\/p>\n

5<\/b>. Given the current financial
\nsituation in many states, majority vote elections will also be cheaper.  <\/span>Currently most states help finance
\nparty primary elections.  <\/span>Primaries
\nwere established because we have a two party oligarchy and it is only through
\nprimaries that much democracy exists in the US at all.  <\/span>But when many parties exist they can
\npay for their own primaries if they want them.  <\/span>The financial savings would not be negligible. <\/p>\n

Here in California as best I can
\ntell a primary costs about  <\/span>$70
\nmillion. Let the parties pay for one if they want one.<\/p>\n

The Bigger Picture<\/b><\/p>\n

A genuine multi party system will be democratic in a way a two party oligarchic oligopoly is not.  Currently Americans can not vote for candidates who support issues the public has supported for a long time, whether the public option or getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq or many other positions far more humane than the travesty of corruption calling itself American democracy can currently address.   <\/p>\n

Many parties will cause the oligarchs the same problems as many states.  The banks ad corporations have been the biggest forces for political centralization, free market fools to the contrary.  That is because the powerful can more easily control a single point of power that requires money to access than they can a multiplicity of points where fewer resources are needed.  <\/p>\n

A multi-party system will ensure that Americans have a decent range of political parties to vote for without thereby helping the party they like least. Banksters and corporations cannot buy everyone off because some parties will exist in explicit opposition to them.  We will have a choice.  This does not mean utopia, but it means decent people will have a chance to vote for decent policies that are put forth in good faith by politicians far more committed to implementing them.<\/p>\n

Objections Met<\/b><\/p>\n

Some people worry about crooked
\nelections.  <\/span>I do as well.  <\/span>In my opinion 2000 was a fraud and 2004
\nwas probably also stolen.  <\/span>What
\nprevents that kind of stuff is an aroused citizenry.  <\/span>An aroused citizenry with many parties having a stake in
\nhonest elections will be a better check on Republican (or Democratic) fraud than anything else.<\/p>\n

When imported Republican thugs
\ninvaded and disrupted vote counting<\/a> in Florida in 2000 our history might be much
\ndifferent if they had been met by patriotic Americans defending the democratic
\nprocess.  <\/span>Third parties engage more
\nserious citizens, on balance, and might have given us that protection.  <\/span>Democrats certainly did not.<\/p>\n

If majority vote rules were
\nestablished in even one state, the resurgence of alternatives would encourage
\nAmericans in other states to adopt the process.  <\/span>It would be a catalyst.  <\/span>States with initiative processes would be the first to go
\nand states with no initiative will be slower, but with enough popular pressure
\neven they will fall in line as state legislators did on ratifying the popular
\nelection of Senators, which took power away from them.  <\/span>Even better, if these rules worked in
\nstates, there would be pressure for even the election of the president to be by
\npopular vote.  <\/span>But that is a long
\nway off at present.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post addresses some questions readers asked in a previous one.   Today a majority of Americans are thoroughly fed up with both major parties, with the Republicans even more than with the Democrats.  Yet these toxic dinosaurs run no risk at all of ceasing to be the two big players in American politics, as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-social-and-political-theory"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy majority vote rules will address important weaknesses in our country - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/why-majority-vote-rules-will-address-important-weaknesses-in-our-country.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why majority vote rules will address important weaknesses in our country - 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