Re: [OT] Voting schemes

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glenn M Wilson" <triphibious@juno.com>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2001 5:14 PM
Subject: Re: [OT] Voting schemes

> Too practical and requires people to actually become involved.

    In my own experiences with American politics (in the College
Republicans, and later the Libertarian Party), the primary problem with
voters isn't so much apathy, as it is just not having a real choice in
who
represents whom.  Imagine being a Democrat in a predominantly Republican
district, or vice versa.  Of course, you can hardly say that the
individual
selected actually represents you since you can't trust them to vote in
your
interest.  Since there is little if any chance of you toppling the
incumbent
candidate (unless they've done something egregiously scandalous, and
even
then there's no guarantee that they'll lose), the only viable
alternatives
for such an individual is too move to a politically friendly district,
keep
voting against the local trend and wait for the political winds to
change,
or throw up their hands and elect not to vote.

    The situation is just as bad for people who don't wish to be
pigeonholed
into America's two-party duopoly (so-called "independents" as well as
those
who actively subscribe to "third parties").  Although they certainly
want to
be a part of the political process, they realize the futility of voting
for
someone outside the two-party system.  While working at the LP booth at
the
Wisconsin State Fair, I heard dozens of people tell me "I'd vote for you
guys, IF you ever had a chance to win."

    Giving people a real and viable choice in who represents them will
most
certainly, turn out the vote.  True, people will have to watch their
representative and make sure they are complying with their wishes. 
That's
why this system allows you to change representatives at any time.  If
you
can work it so that the politician has to keep the number of people who
consent to have them represent them be above a certain number (say
50,000
people), they'll have to work very hard to keep in their good graces or
loss
their seat at a moment's notice.

    Of course, your still going to have those who won't vote because
they
totally disagree with the system, or lazy lumps who don't care about
politics what so ever.	That, in my opinion, is their right.  However,
they
shouldn't come crying to me when the government isn't operating the way
they
think it should.  Voting gives you right (or at least, the credentials)
to
complain.  Paying taxes just gives you the right to gripe.

>Not to mention all the bureaucrats (NGO types, of course) that would be
out
of
> work...

    Heh... heh... Wouldn't it be glorious?  I can just imagine all those
government flunkies actually having to find real jobs.	(Repeat after me
"Do
you want fries with that?")

Later,