Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.
I believe that Dr. King's message has a broader agenda than just dealing with the individual issues we all could list. For if I went through just the issues I have listed we would find that they all follow the same pattern. Pablum policy. Small ideas. Weak choices. Timid plans. A constant caving into lesser evilism. When you constantly have the same pattern over and over again with the same result no matter the issue, it points to systemic deficiencies. If we don't fix those systemic deficiencies, there is no hope for this or any Congress "making America again" If we don't fix we will constantly being running from issue to issue, begging our Congresspersons to "make America again" Though we might stem the retreat, and we might even inch forward, we will be kept from escaping the gravity of systemic deficiencies.
What is the first demand? Fix our electoral system. And I don't mean HAVA. That bill is the worst of all compromises. Republicans legislators got in an ID requirement. Democratic legislators got in electronic voting. And we got nothing. Electronic voting doesn't work. And no amount of paper records will fix that. Canada holds there elections on paper ballots. And they count them overnight. It is relatively simple to make paper ballots handicapped accessible. We should have a right to have our vote counted.
But we don't. In Bush v. Gore, the US Supreme Court said there is no Constitutional Right to have your vote counted. And speaking about what else is not in the Constitution, our winner-take-all election system is not Constitutionally required
Speaking of constitutionally required systems, 2 states have broken away from winner-take all to a more proportional system for the Electoral College. You don't get all the delegates if you get 42% percent of the vote, just because no one else got more. You should get 42% of the delegates. Now I am not suggesting that we adopt this for all states for the electoral college because the whole electoral college system should be replaced with a direct election. The Electoral College is the last remnant of the rich white male landowners having a check on the poor white male landowners.
But let's return to the idea why the candidate with only 42% percent of the vote shouldn't take the election just because no one got more. The Baseball MVP and the Heisman trophy winner are elected by a system caller Instant Run-off Voting. IRV for short. It's a simple idea. You rank all the candidates in order of your preference. If no one gets 50% of the vote, then the candidate with the least votes is dropped out of the counting. But here is the beauty of the system, the voters who for the last place candidate have their second choice move up to be counted. This goes on until one candidate reaches a majority.
This system is already at work in place like California and Vermont. Why bother? Because it allows you to vote for what you love rather than worrying about voting against what you hate. Even if your prime worry in the 2000 election was keeping Bush from getting elected, you could have freely voted for Nader first, and Gore second, because Bush would have had to get over 50% of the vote rather than just 1 more vote than Gore.
Now the only academic study I could find of this showed that based on polling figures if this type of system was in place Nader could have been elected president in 2000. That means that IRV frees candidates to talk about what they believe in, and elected officials legislate to "make America again" rather than constantly peddling"pablum".
It also frees the voters from listening to hours of worthless negative campaign ads because each candidate would be vying to be your second and third choice vote if they are not your first choice.
In places like NYC which has a requirement of a run-off election for mayor if neither candidate gains 50% percent of the vote, IRV could save the millions of dollars required for a second election. Hence, the name IRV which would instantly create a built-in run-off election showing voters choices.
These are the types are reforms that Lani Guinier was trying to talk about way back in the beginning of the Clinton Administration when she was nominated for the Justice Department. For her trouble the Right erroneously labeled her the "quota queen" and President Clinton made that label stick by running away from her nomination. Imagine if she had been confirmed.
Professor Guinier wrote about similar voting systems that could be used in electing multi-member districts through proportional representation just as it is used to elect some corporate boards. This would work for town boards, but could also be applied to county and state legislatures and congress. Instead of just voting for one representative from one geographic area, multiple legislators would be elected from a larger geographic area. The difference is that people with similar views could have representation in proportion to their voting strength. For simplification purposes let's say you have 5 congressional seats in Suffolk & Nassau. Then under proportional representation a 20% minority group spread over that area can have a voice in Congress from Long Island Again this encourages candidates to talk about what they believe in, and elected officials legislate to "make America again" rather than run campaigns of "pablum".
We also demand that we have a level playing field so ordinary citizens can run for office. Despite the media constantly using the phrase "two-party system," no such requirement exists in the constitution. Too many election laws are written so that only the choice of the major parties can run people for office. And in too many areas around the country, like in the Town of Babylon where I live, you have situations where year after year no Democrat is run against a Republican State Senator and no Republican is run against Democratic Assemblyman. That is not democracy. That is not healthy. That is not a market place of ideas.
I should note that I borrowed the term "a marketplace of ideas" from a Supreme Court case about the importance of the first amendment. The press is the only constitutionally protected business in order for them to facilitate this marketplace. The press have let us down. They regularly ignore anyone but registered Democrats and Republican who run for office. The Newsday editorial board refuses to interview independent candidates. News 12 similarly does not allow independent candidates in their debates. Now the press has the right to express its opinions, and dislike, and write bad things about any candidate it wants. But when it reports on certain legal candidates, and acts like other ballot-qualified candidates don't exist, that crosses the line in my mind into making a campaign contribution. In my mind, they should have to report it as such.
Speaking of campaign finance, we need serious reform there. The best solution I have seen is public campaign financing. It is also called clean campaign because it takes corporate influence out of campaigns. And I'm not talking about HR 4694 which was sponsored by Congressman Steve Israel, and some other Democrats. That bill would have basically funded Democratic and Republican candidates while making independent candidates jump through additional hoops. The model I am talking about is used in NYC and in New England. Every candidate has to get a certain number of small donations from a certain number of real people. Let's say 200 contributions of $5 a piece. At that point the candidate would qualify for funding.
Now I can hear the conservatives complaining that we would be adding another tax to pay for this. Well, we're already being taxed twice for elections and we have no say in how its spent. Corporations tax me by raising their price so they can pay for campaign contributions. And then the government taxes me when the corporations get payback through legislation that only applies them.
The Wilder's life has always veered between art and politics. When they got together in the late 1990's, Kimberly and Ian ratcheted up their activities. Together, Ian and Kimberly Wilder published chapbooks; gave dozens of poetry readings; published poetry; wrote newspaper articles; and hosted events.
Ian has performed spoken word as a part of the near-mythic folk groovin' band Nylon & Steel, and was co-founding lyricist for the duo Spiritwalkers. His work with Nylon & Steel can be found on the album "Slip Behind the Molecule".
With Nader's 2000 presidential campaign, the Wilders were drawn back into politics. Within four years they had co-founded the Babylon Greens at their kitchen table; run the first full ticket of Greens in their town's history; got Kimberly twice elected to the Executive Committee of Green Party of New York State; and then Ian to the position of GPNYS State Party Co-chair.
In 2006 , Ian stepped back from state politics after retaining the right to enroll Green in NY by successfully getting Malachy McCourt on the ballot for Governor , and Kimberly returned to the Executive Committee for a third term.
you make several rather excellent points regarding the way our current politics system works, or rather fails to work for the good of the community, instead focussing on the welfare of the wealthy few and the selfish interests and needs of those who need to raise monies for reelection campaigns. I am certain that, as a professed Green yourself, you understand to large degree how this single facet warps the entire process of governance.
I have come to understand that, no matter the eloquence of the campaigner, no matter the promises made to the voter, once elected the lawmaker turns that allegiance to those who can ensure or deny reelection. Do you really expect these sold souls to actually consider real election reform when they have flourished under the current and crooked system? Do you think them capable of banning lobbyists when they, themselves, hunger for a retirement job paying a large six figure annual stipend. Never mind that they once spoke with passion about ending corruption, war and poverty, there just isnt any money in that crap.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2388 comments)
on Monday, February 5, 2007 at 11:08:32 AM
