Solution: Let’s make this a High Trust Society.
Our political system today = divide-and-conquer. There is a first-step solution provided to us by the US Constitution.
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We are split in districts and we fight each other for that one seat. This is classic divide-and-conquer which was business as usual in the 18th century. The world has moved on and very few nations in the world today are two-party nations (USA is one of the last holdouts). The good news? The US Constitution demands in the 14th Amendment that we put the better system in place.
Proportional Voting = We-The-People
Today, we fight each other over that one seat. The winner dominates. The voting minority has no voice in our system. Up to 49.99 percent of the voters can remain unrepresented. Like a carrot, We The People is held in front of our faces. But we have divide-and-conquer instead.
To the left our system with its restricting districts.
Half the voters (plus one) can dominate the other half.
To the right, the We-The-People system. With eight seats, almost 90 percent of the voters can point their finger toward the person or party they voted for.
That is the minimum number.
We were had, and we have had enough of this dominating culture because it means we accept ourselves to have large segments of losers as well. Today, we are not We The People.
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But one step at a time:
The Fed and State governments were given freedoms to more or less do as they see fit in the US Constitution, and so they have a bit of leeway around the constitutional demand to put the better system in place. Cities and counties, however, do not have that freedom nor that leeway. They must follow the demand fully. Here’s a visual:
A: Fed and State are given constitutional freedoms.
B: The Constitution demands the better system is put in place.
Cities only have B to follow, but they behave as if they were given A. They were not.
It is actually a good first step to start here, because the local level is highly important and it is a safe place to learn a completely different form of democracy in which all are represented.
Want to see an example? Here.
Next, once we have seen the inclusive democracy from the inside, we may want to change our state system. The state constitutions are far easier to change than the US Constitution.
Especially for large states, it isn’t smart to end up with twenty little parties, so a hybrid form is probably best. There is no nation in the world with more experience in political systems than Germany, and since they based their current system on the US system, this may be the easiest to implement. They still vote in districts, but they fix up the end result in a proportional manner (plus parties won’t get seats until they reach five percent of the voter total). Gerrymandering is useless in such a hybrid system and there are more than two parties (but not twenty).
Let’s make this a High Trust Society, Casey. I don’t think this was ever a High Trust Nation other than a Highly Fooled Nation, trusting the few to do what is right. We were promised We The People and often behaved as if we were. But our system is divide-and-conquer. Thank you for your very well written article.
We can start taking the first step and hold the feet of our local representatives to the fire and demand our constitution-given better voting system. If they don’t comply, there are two other velvet options available as well.
