Is reforming American politics possible?
I believe that reforming American politics is both possible and necessary to implement a progress-based reform agenda.
The following is an excerpt from my second book Promoting Progress: A Radical New Agenda to Create Abundance for All. You can order e-books at a discounted price at my website, or you can purchase for full price on Amazon.
Other books in my “From Poverty to Progress” book series:
See my other articles on Electoral Reform:
To reform our policy, we must first reform our electoral system
Is reforming American politics possible? (this article)
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In my previous posts (here, here and here), I made the case for a radical reform of our electoral process to increase political competition. In this post, I will explain how we can actually implement this reform proposal.
But first let me quickly go over what my proposal is:
Establish an Independent primary (in addition to the Democratic and Republican party primaries). This would break the current Democrat/Republican duopoly and turn every election into a three-way contest.
Shift to ranked-choice voting. This would eliminate the problem of “wasted votes” and enable Independents to compete in the general elections.
Shift from single-member districts to multi-member districts for the U.S. House, Electoral College and state legislatures. This would increase representation of Republicans in Blue states and Democrats in Red states.
Select legislative leadership using ranked-choice voting by the entire membership. This would make the leadership responsible to the entire legislature, not just a majority within the majority party.
How Do We Get It Done?
The combination of all four of my suggested electoral reforms would create a powerful political realignment. Independent candidates would be empowered, party primaries within the dominant party would lose their veto power, minority parties within Red/Blue states would be represented, and legislative leaders would be far more representative of the American people.
There is only one problem: under our current system, the people who have the power to change the system are the very people who benefit from the status quo. That is why Congress and state legislatures have no incentive to reform the system. Any real reform would probably end many of their political careers, so of course, they oppose it. They are part of the problem, not the solution.
Congress and state legislatures will probably never pass my proposed reform agenda because they are dominated by Red-state Republicans and Blue-state Democrats who are nominated by ideological activists. Nor is amending the Constitution possible, as both parties also control that process.
State-level Initiatives
The only way to reform the electoral system that bypasses both Congress and the state legislatures is state-level initiatives. Initiatives enable citizens to sign petitions to place the question directly on the ballot for popular vote. If the initiative wins a majority of the vote in one election, it becomes law in that state.
Initiative and referenda rules vary greatly by state, but a total of 14 states allow direct initiatives while another 7 states enable the state legislatures to put referenda on the ballot. In general, western states allow initiatives and/or referendum, while eastern states do not.
A total of 16 states enable direct initiatives to amend the state constitution, which typically defines the electoral system. California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio are the most populous states that allow this process. Together these 16 states make up a sizable portion of the American electorate.
A well-funded initiative drive to get all four of my proposed reforms onto the state ballot might realistically achieve success within a few election cycles. As mentioned before, Maine, Alaska, and Nevada have already passed initiatives to establish ranked-choice voting. The ranked-choice movement is gaining momentum in other states.
I believe that a well-funded initiative drive across many states could get a great deal of voter support. Because of the expense of modern politics, a nation-wide movement would probably cost millions or even tens of millions of dollars. But the partial success in Maine, Alaska and Nevada shows that committed voters can get by on shoe-string budgets.
Of course, both major parties would fight hard against implementing my suggested reforms and deliberately cause confusion about the motivations and likely outcomes of the reforms. Democrats will claim that that reform is a right-wing conspiracy to overthrow democracy and disenfranchise racial minorities. Republicans will claim that reform only benefits liberals and increases the growth of the Deep State. They will inevitably fight back, as fundamental reform would be a threat to their control over American politics.
However, I believe that the American people are so fed up with both parties and the toxic political culture that they have created that initiatives will succeed in at least one state. Success in any one state would cause momentum for these measures to make it onto the ballot in additional states. At some point, I believe, the dam will break and substantial progress will occur.
Let’s start that process.
Reforming Legislatures
The only plank on my reform agenda that could not be implemented by state-level
initiative is changing how Congressional leaders are elected. State legislative rules also very greatly by state, but most determine their own rules. For this reason, it will be very hard for voters to force through reform.
Reforming legislative bodies will have to come after reforms to the electoral process. That can only be achieved when Independents and moderates make up a sizable bloc in Congress, and they can use that influence to force through institutional reforms. In other words, electoral reform will enable legislative reform.
All it will take is for a handful of small states or one big state to start electing a substantial number of Independents and moderate partisans to Congress and state legislatures. Fortunately, because the partisan balance between Republicans and Democrats is so tight, this is probably all that would be needed.
A handful of Independents and moderates would be highly influential, because their support would be needed to pass major legislation. This bloc could withhold their vote until the party leaders agree to reform the legislative process. This, combined with a series of state-level initiatives, could generate real pressure for reform from below. At some point, centrists would grow into a critical mass that could force radical electoral change across the entire nation.
If a sizable number of states adopt my proposed electoral reforms via state-initiative, and then this is followed by legislative process reforms in Congress and those state legislatures, this will create a fundamentally different political system. I believe that the positive results will be so obvious that other states without an initiative process will be forced to copy the reforms.
The above was an excerpt from my book Promoting Progress: A Radical New Agenda to Create Abundance for All. You can order prerelease e-books at a discounted price at my website, or you can purchase for full price on Amazon.
Other books in my “From Poverty to Progress” book series:
See my other articles on Electoral Reform: