I started reading because the title is right on. But... again, I am missing such an important part, I just have to respond. It is about empowering, and you may feel you are pointing in the right direction, but you are not. You are pointing at individuals of a certain kind, and you are not pointing at the larger mechanisms at play. The larger mechanisms are more important in light of empowering all than individuals receiving benefits where others do not.
This society has a voting system that discriminates. You should be outraged, day in day out, and scream for justice. Our voting system discriminates against people of color. It discriminates against women. It discriminates against poor people. It is the worst system for anyone who wants to voice their own empowerment. We are told we can, but in reality many cannot.
Here is how it works: When the top of society is not representative of society, then all of society will show that unfair representation.
ONLY the majority is represented in our system of empowerment.
Next, all of society is based on full competition. But our political system is based on restrictions and districts. Right where we need to be empowered the most, we are made the weakest, given the tiniest amount of space to express ourselves, and then we can go home, still unrepresented, still unheard.
There are two forms of democracy. Winner-take-all that we have. And equal representation.
Imagine equal representation.
In the US, one in eight is of African descent. With equal representation, there would be somewhere between 10 and 15 African-American Senators. Imagine the view people in the entire nation would have if there were 12 African-American Senators, and people realizing that that is the norm. Then folks in the street would be behaving differently toward African-Americans because they are seen in their normal numbers at the highest level of the nation.
It is not about the single Barack Obama or Kamala Harris. The Democratic Party is known to front people that help them secure their needed votes.
It looks like just one party is doing things right. But in reality it is about just one party doing just what it needs to do to get the votes they need. The majority-win is the only thing that counts today, and parties do not do more than trying to get that majority-win.
In equal representation, all parties are engaged in full competition. It is fantastic for the voters because all of a sudden three, four parties want your vote and are willing to stand up for what it is that you need. Two or three parties may do the opposite, but they are out in the open and once they can give their own favorite groups a bit of what they need, then compromises can be made that are good for the largest part of society, and not just for the small majority. That's how health care gets put in place for all. So many parties compete, the nastiest and most selfish party bites the dust.
That is what I was missing in your article. Otherwise, I just want to say thank you for writing with passion and pointing out that we are not there yet. But remember that in winner-take-all there are a good number of groups angry because they are being left out. They are not all of the same kind, and what is often seen is that those getting the short end of the stick end up using sticks to short anyone else they can get their hands on. Unhelpful infighting can particularly occur among groups that should try to work together and change our voting system, for instance. We can already do that at the local and state level, US Constitution approved.
I write about political structures, and here is one of my latest articles:
'And the Winner is: The Losing Party.'
https://medium.com/the-national-discussion/and-the-winner-is-the-losing-party-c683c1d739e5
It sounds incorrect, but unfortunately it is indeed correct. The Losing Party is the largest block of voters.
