One of many, many discussions ><https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/1/26/can-the-us-ever-break-the-two-party-binary>
about how to break the undemocratic dysfunction that is strangling the
US electoral system.
It seems people are terrified about proportional representation.
Remember all the scaremongering here in NZ about the instability it
would cause? If you think the US system is somehow resistant to such >instability, just remember
... with 10 government shutdowns occurring in the US since 1981
and several more narrowly avoided, the threat of government
grinding to a halt already exists ...
... something which has never happened in NZ, after close to 30 years
of MMP.
The US has experimented with this sort of thing in the past. It was
sad to read this part:
For example, in the first half of the 20th century a number of
cities used single transferable vote (STV), a version of ranked
choice voting with multi-member districts that is specifically
aimed at ensuring proportional representation. The method was
discontinued largely because of hostility to racial and ethnic
minorities benefitting from the system, a concern that has
hopefully lessened across the US since then.
On the bright side, Alaska and Maine have adopted ranked-choice
voting. In the last election for their representative to the U.S.
House, Alaska chose Mary Peltola over Sarah Palin. Republicans of
course complained that the election method was somehow biased against
them, when the simple fact was that just about nobody who didnt want
Sarah Palin as their first choice wanted her as their second one
either.
Their system is plagued by having 50 States with their own
independent legislatures (where we have none) each of which asserts
their own sovereignty.
Their system is plagued by having 50 States with their own
independent legislatures (where we have none) each of which
asserts their own sovereignty.
The present showdown over the southern border is an attempt by 26
governors to stop the current lawless president.
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