Forum Post: The reforms on the Electoral system needed to turn the USA in a real democracy.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 5:33 p.m. EST by LearnSomeHistory
(58)
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What reforms in the voting system (electoral system) do you think are necessary to turn the USA in a real democracy?
Some proposals here:
End of the money donations from the corporations to the political campaigns of candidates and parties. Those donations should be made illegal.
Direct voting for President. A real democracy can not tolerate things like those that happened in 2000, when Al Gore held the majority of the votes, but George W. Bush won the elections.
End of the 435 congressional districts. If the State of New York has the right to 27 representatives in the House, the election should be state-level, and the 27 candidates with most votes should be elected. This kind of voting system will stimulate the origination of a multi-party system. The current district system stimulates the "lesser of two evils" mentality and the two-party system.
The Senate should be abolished, because it's an undemocratic institution, since a small state with very low population can have the same power of state with much larger population.
More proposals?
I agree, I've posted on the need for political party reform. This could be the single most important demand we ever make, but its hard getting the message out:
The political game is rigged. Two parties control the entire political system, but besides rhetoric, are they really all that different? Impossibly high barriers prevent third parties from every gaining ground in the election process. Namely, the fact that we have what is called a WINNER-TAKES-ALL SYSTEM. It basically means that whichever party/candidate gets a majority of the electoral votes in a state gets all of those votes. For example, California gets 55 electoral votes. If one party gets just 28 votes (which is barely a majority), all 55 votes count to that party/candidate in the general election. This effectively means that ANY VOTE FOR A THIRD PARTY IS ALWAYS A WASTED VOTE. What we need is proportional representation (used in Europe). This would allow for a multitude of parties to flourish, effectively breaking the status quo of our stagnant political system and allowing for real, significant change. Additionally, a dynamic political system such as this would by its very nature SEVERELY LIMIT THE POWER CORPORATIONS HAVE OVER OUR POLITICAL PARTIES. As more factors define our election process, it gets exponentially more difficult for corporations to influence our government. Now naturally, nothing has ever been done by Congress to really institute this kind of reform, as it is obviously against the interests of the two parties to have their positions of power so radically altered. But I ask you this: How many times during an election do you vote for the LESSER OF TWO EVILS? How many times have you wanted to vote for an independent candidate, only to recoil at the prospect of a WASTED VOTE? The only way to win the game, is to change the rules! Bring about change by DEMANDING that congress institute political party reform... They say we don't have a defined goal. We do... To break the STATUS QUO. This single demand, by itself, could change everything.
This provides some good information on the third party and the barriers it faces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_(United_States) Most people have no idea how our electoral system works... If this message is spread, it could make big waves both in the media and in politics. Best of all, more political representation is something that everybody wants. Though the parties will no doubt try and put their own spin on this, they will have a hard time coming up with reasons against it in the face of the American people.
As I have said before on this forum, every vote needs to count. If one party wins 51% of the votes in one district today, 49% of the votes are wasted.
We need proportional representation that counts every vote!
15% of the votes = 15% of the seats
That's why the Representatives of each state should be elected in state-level, not in district-level, since each district only has one Representative.
Any ideas?
Nobody?
Nobody wants a real democracy?