Taxation without Representation: Winner-Takes-All Politics

The American political process is akin to a MVA patient rolling through the doors at the local ER; it’s broken in so many places that it’s hard to know where to start in addressing the issues. And it shows: the Democratic Congress currently has approximately a 10% public approval rating, and the President’s has been hovering somewhere within the 20s.

Why are Americans so dissatisfied with our politicians? Because we are offered the same unpalatable 2-party flavors of political ice-cream: corporate flavor with red sprinkles, corporate flavor with blue sprinkles. Because we are not allowed to withhold consent in elections: there is no ballot option to withhold consent from one/either candidate.

Where do we begin to reform such a political train-wreck? An excellent way to start is by implementing a system of proportional representation over our current winner-takes-all election system.

The winner-takes-all electoral system of this country disadvantages the vast majority of Americans. Because votes are dependent upon media exposure, and media exposure requires massive financing, the winner-takes-all system vastly favors the most financed, most connected, most establishment candidates. Grass-roots candidates, who are overwhelmingly outspent, have effectively no chance to win, no matter how experienced, educated, or sincere they are. Furthermore, many "rights" that we enjoy today were at one time minority opinions: for example, abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. Government tended to disenfranchise, rathen than enfranchise these groups; it tended to obstruct their constitutional rights, rather than facilitate them. That's the nature of disproportional representation.

For a large minority--and sometimes the majority--the winner-takes-all system is nothing more than veiled 'taxation without representation.'

However, in a proportional representation system, no vote is unheard, no voice is ignored. For example, say there are 10 House seats available in a particular state. Let's say that 46% of the residents of that state voted Democrat, 44% Republican, and 10% Green Party. Instead of the current system, which would ignore the majority (54%) of the voters of that state by electing the winner(s)-take(s)-all, a proportional representational system would allot 5 seats to the Democrats, 4 to the Republicans, and 1 to the Greens. All residents are represented; all residents have a voice.

Like the abolitionist and women’s suffrage movements, we must start small. We must work to enact local/statewide ballot reforms. State-by-state, voters can take back their rights by breaking the ballot-box-duopoly.

Revolutionarily yours,
Thommunist