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Rule of the Majority? [1]
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Date: 2022-07-11
"Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country." ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
WHAT IF?
Merriam-Webster defines democracy as: "Government by the people; rule of the majority and a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections."
By that definition, America is not a democracy.
"Rule of the majority" asserts that a constituency consisting of more than half of the people should be able to decide policy.
More than half of Americans today would decide policies to combat climate change, eliminate income inequalities, enact fair tax laws, end racial disparities, implement common-sense gun laws, institute living wage laws, protect a woman's right to choose, and remove dark money from politics, and on and on.
But, because the "Rule of the majority" does not prevail in today's America, our elected leaders are unable or unwilling to enact any of those policies.
So, if the majority no longer governs America, who does?
Not the House of Representatives, where gerrymandering coupled with "winner-take-all" voting forces Democrats to win more than fifty percent of the popular vote in 435 House districts to hold even a bare majority.
In 2020, for example, Democratic candidates won 77,529,619 votes and lost 13 seats, while Republican candidates won 72,760,036 votes (4,769,583 fewer) yet gained 14 seats.
Since the 2020 result doesn't represent the will of the majority who voted for Democratic House candidates, is there anything we can do to ensure democracy functions as it is defined?
What if the majority of Americans pressured publicly supported state legislators and members of Congress to replace "winner take all" voting with "Proportionally ranked-choice" (PRC) voting?
PRC allows voters to rank their candidate preferences in order (1,2,3, etc.) or vote for a preferred candidate.
If more than two candidates run for a House seat and no candidate receives more than 50% of first-choice ballots, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated.
The voter's second and third-ranked choices are counted and added to higher-ranked candidates until a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes and is declared the winner.
As a result, the majority of voters elect a majority of seats, but not all seats.
PRC voting increases representation by political parties to give voters more choices, reduces acrimonious campaigning, and eliminates gerrymandering by either party because shares of votes, not arbitrary district lines, determine who wins.
What if?
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