i’ve told the tale here more than once about colonists in Africa wanting to pass out stones to be used by voters choosing representatives. The idea was to put the stones in the basket that represented the chief they wanted. The natives balked and exclaimed but what about all the people that didn’t want this new chief…what happens to their needs?
In Europe proportional representation has a long history when used to elect members of their legislatures. In the US it is winner takes all but in Europe there are election systems based upon the idea that voters deserve representation. It is also understood that political groups in society also need to be represented in the legislature based upon the number of votes they accumulated during the election.
So instead of becoming a majority party in office, if your party won 40% of say 20 seats you would get 8 seats. If the Green party won 20% of the vote they would get 4 seats, the Independents who had 30% of the vote would get 6 seats and the rest would be allocated to the two remaining seats based upon their percentage of the vote. No one is left out of office.
Our system is based upon single-winner elections which leaves a lot of the electorate feeling disenfranchised.
When 66% of the entire nations eligible voters stay home we have a problem. The majority of American voters choose not to participate in the mid-term elections. So if anyone out there thinks these newly elected politicians on both sides of the aisle actually represent the American people…think again…because the majority of eligible voters think its a waste of time to even stand in line to vote.
The majority of voters didn’t want to vote for any of them. They didn't want to vote, they didn't want to expend any energy doing something in a system they no longer believe in.
There was obscene amounts of money spent on this election cycle and the majority of voters choose to stay home.
What does this say about our nations political process? What does it say about how our politics work?
See ya next week
3 comments:
I’d say the turnout means conservatives have won. Not just because the Republican Party has taken control of the senate, but for much deeper and more troubling reasons. The whole notion of this republic started out as a gamble positing the question “let’s see if the average rabble can govern itself over time?” Please excuse my being pedantical here, but our forefathers came out of an English culture whose governance relied (and still relies) on a series of agreements that has evolved over time. Our constitution was a new thing, designed as a compromise among a group of brilliant, highly educated men. The mechanics of the government they devised has its faults; as you point out parliamentary systems provide more representation for differing points of view. But it was the “self-governing” part of the gamble that underpinned the whole enterprise. And therein lies the weakness that all modern states face. In order to work, the voting public has to be able to parse out what’s in their best interests.
Controlling sources of information whether in a totalitarian state or here in the U.S. gives those in charge tremendous power. Heading into our recent election most Americans were convinced by a well-funded and highly cynical media campaign that the country is in a complete mess and liberals and Obama are to blame. When it comes to broad cultural trends, facts don’t matter-- perceptions do. Of course, right-wing oligarchs don’t control all of America’s news outlets, but they own enough of them to influence a large percentage of American voters (everything News Corp owns being prime examples). But this, in a competitive country is to be expected. I realize we’ve had issues with our press before, nineteenth and early twentieth century yellow journalism being the famous examples. But I think today’s all-out effort to manipulate American culture is scarier than those old historical efforts. I think conservative opinion makers have long since stolen a march by convincing a large percentage of the population that FOX is middle of the road and every other TV news source is liberal. The major networks fearing a loss in revenue stay neutral or slightly right of center so as not to offend their more conservative viewers. And the percentage of folks who read the NYT watch PBS or listen to NPR is reflected in the losing side numbers of the recent election.
I personally think the fate of our Republic took a sudden downturn with the election of Ronald Reagan. He popularized the notion that our government couldn’t be trusted with governing. Reagan’s ideas have been adopted and exploited by many others. Republican strategizers have worked hard building plans to take over state houses so gerrymandering could secure safe conservative districts and thus own the House in perpetuity. By cleverly packing the courts with conservatives Republicans have tilted the playing field heavily toward the moneyed class (check out how much was spent on Attorneys General races this year!). Exploiting the ignorance and laziness of Americans in general, conservatives have instilled distrust, even a distain of science and public education through the use of their media.
Though generally not fond of conspiracy theories, I suspect there’s a long term nefarious plot to make the voting public more ignorant and ill-informed than they already are. This effort involves such disparate things as privatizing schools and controlling the internet. Results of these efforts may reverberate down through generations.
Maybe, the founding fathers gambled rightly and things will eventually work out -- or maybe not. Anyway, keep up the good fight Sheelagh & thanks. Tom Strother
The Delegate's opponent seems to have taken his campaign right out of the GOP handbook.
Is the Delegates opponent a Republican in Disguise running as an Independent?
Two assumptions: one, everyone knows that a Republican will have a daunting task to be elected as Governor, next an Independent representative in US Politics is a pawn for either Party.
Now that the House and the Senate are both under GOP control is this an indication to which side, if elected, our Governor will lean?
When I read blogs and listen to responses and commercials, President Obama in the Media is viewed as done absolutely nothing to the betterment of the citizens of the United States, and has been the worst President to serve the Nation. This is exactly how our Virgin Islands Delegate to the United States Congresses is being portrait all over the Media.
In both President Obama and our Delegate to Congress cases, the Records speaks louder than Melee.
But then again, on Facebook there seems to be a spill-over from the Michael Springer Show, Crucians In Focus.
In the US, imagine the poor ignorant and racist in America are supporting the Wealthy and the Republicans, "Cutting off their nose to spite their face, solely because Obama is Black."
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