We MUST tell the truth to one another, and the worst lie that plenty of people are looking away from is that our form of democracy did not deliver. It is not a surprise because all we ever had was the single-winner system and not the full-representation system. We let our neighbors decide who was going to represent us because only the majority in the district got the one they voted for. It's winner-take-all, it's divide-and-conquer, it's definitively not the American Dream or California Dreaming. Voters are set up against voters for the win, so there is automatically and immediately a diminishment of our voter power. So many of us voters remain unrepresented. We are cowed like sheep toward the one or two candidates and have to accept them as all there is to choose from. We’re not free, politically.
It is probably not said any clearer than Russia not meddling in countries with full representation. They cannot get much benefit out of meddling in nations with the real deal of democracy because all they end up doing is pushing the Green Party (as just one example) from 10% of the seats to 11% of the seats. Indeed, not much bang for their rubles.
Here, the Russians can get a 100% result for their meddling prowess because our system is based on 100% representation by one winner, and 0% representation by all the others. Add some good spin and go for the win.
The balance that needs to be tipped is so easily tipped in our system and that makes it worthwhile for the Russians.
But don't be fooled. It is not just the Russians. Every special interest group, every Democratic and Republican candidate has sought to influence that tipping point. To hell with regular voters. All they care about is the tipping point and they are willing to spend all their bucks on tipping it.
So, thank you for writing about California and wanting us to start again, this time truthfully.
We have to start voting for candidates that want to overhaul our 18th century voting system. Yes, that change is already US Constitution approved. Don’t believe the false spin that we can’t change the way we are voting.
The elections for city councils and county boards should already be discrimination-free says the 14th Amendment, and winner-take-all is of course far removed from being discrimination-free. If you don't vote for number 1 or number 2 than you can't get represented. Minorities cannot get represented. Republicans in San Francisco (one in six voted for George W. Bush in 2004), have no representation. And that is just a political group I know you heard of. We can change the local voting setup, today.
Next, the States have the freedom to put any system in place that they like themselves. All we need to do is vote for full representation, and if you think that is too much freedom than we should incorporate the American-German system, which is our very own system with a top layer of proportional adjustment to it. Districts then still have a single winner, but all votes are counted together for the entire state, and if the Libertarians won ten percent of the votes, but no districts, then ten percent of seats are added in Sacramento. Gerrymandering: Goodbye!
All we need to do is vote for candidates that want to change our voting system. And if no one is there, step up to the plate, offer the same political agenda as the most popular guys and gals PLUS add more voter empowerment to the mix. Give the voters their freedom so our politicians get within reach of us, and you’ll win.
We were never free in this nation. We just believed in the dream of We The People. As long as the politicians believed it, too, we were fine. But as soon as the politicians saw that a game behind the game could be played as well, we got sold out. We have to get the real system to become the best state in the world again. We have to make our politicians honest, and we do that by having the candidates compete for our votes, and stop the voters from having to compete with one another.
The first thing about democracy...
It is indeed not what you think it is.
