America Needs Proportional Representation
Represent the true will of American voters
End gerrymandering and rigged redistricting
Make every vote count and every election competitive
Democrats and Republicans have been pulling apart for 50 years. We live in an “Us” against “Them” world with little mutual respect.
In early 2020, Lee Drutman laid out the threat to American Democracy:
“Self-governance depends on electoral losers accepting their losses, and on electoral winners, giving the losers the freedom to dissent and criticize, and a fair chance to compete in the next election.
Hyper-partisanship threatens all this by raising electoral stakes to impossible heights, and making the other party seem so extreme and dangerous that the thought of them winning is simply unacceptable.
Once the parties polarize in a two-party system, the danger is that polarization becomes a self-reinforcing dynamic — a doom loop.”[1]
President Trump did not accept his loss. He exercises his freedom to dissent and criticize.
Democratic prosecutors charged Trump for alleged crimes committed to retain power. They hoped to lock him up to stop him from running in 2024. Allegations include inciting an armed mob to disrupt the certification of electoral college votes, and soliciting the Georgia Secretary of State to change the Georgia vote count in his favor.
The prosecutors moved slowly. Trump’s lawyers further delayed the procedures. These cases may never be resolved. A case concerning shenanigans in the 2016 campaign is still in appeals.
Yes, we are heading in the wrong direction.
Feeding the Doom Loop
The spoiler effect locks in two-party rule by crushing third-party and independent candidates. Our only choice is between two warring tribes.
Geography also divides us. In many states and districts, only one party has a chance to win. A small percentage of the voters decide each election in that party’s primary. The general election winner is preordained.
Votes for a losing candidate in a one-sided race have no effect. Technically, a vote that does not help elect a candidate is a “wasted vote”. Proportional Representation (PR) is the only way to make wasted votes rare.
In contested races, primary voters want warriors who can raise money to win close races. Dark money comes in from large corporations and the ultra-wealthy via SuperPACs. Worse, we are so divided by cultural issues we cannot work together on economic issues. The donor class has an incentive to keep us divided.
Officeholders who make compromises with the opposition may be primaried. The threat is real because primary voters fear the other party. More than anything, voters want candidates to fight for their side.
News outlets pander to their target audience. Outrage is manufactured, news is spun to fit the preferred narrative. Algorithms feed us what we want to hear. Hostility intensifies with each campaign.
The Incentives Must Change
Two parties cannot represent the voters in a small town, let alone the entire nation. Negative campaigns are rewarded, compromise is punished.
Politicians are not the problem; it is the system we put them in. It’s time to liberate our politicians from a failing system.
The good news is American democracy has survived almost 250 years, despite using an inferior system, Choose 1 voting. We can make vast improvements with Multi-party Election Reform.
Proportional Represntation (PR)
PR voices the voters’ true will.
PR is fair to all candidates and parties.
Every PR election is competitive; your vote will count. Our votes will no longer be wasted.
Voters and politicians will have more political parties to choose from.
Third-party and independent candidates will have a fair chance and a real voice.
With more parties to work with, we can find and support candidates who spurn dark money so they can work for us.
With more choices, voters will be in position to punish divisive campaigns.
In PR sytems parties must collaborate to achieve their goals. Parties need candidates who can reach accross the isle. Politics becomes more civilized, before and after the campaign.
For these reasons, PR is the best way to brake the doom loop.
Why give up on democracy? Instead, why not replace a failed system with a system that stands for all of us, proportional representation?
Problems
Critics claim PR will allow for extreme parties to gain representation. But our current system is converting major parties into extreme parties. Yes, if voters support them, extremists will be represented in PR systems. PR systems also allow voters to support more alternatives to extremists.
Obstructionists will obstruct. Our current system breeds obstruction, multi-party reform will not make them go away. PR will help officeholders form alliances to defeat obstructionists.
New Rules
We seldom discuss procedures for legislatures, yet they are critical to the lawmaking process. Reforming the operating rules of legislatures can improve the art of governance.
Time to give our political system a much-needed reboot. PR will require major rule changes. This is a feature, not a bug.
Voters Take Charge will recruit current and former officeholders to help us develop rule proposals for proportional legislatures. The goal is a legislature where majority coalitions can be built to enact or reject legislation. To balance order and independence, each party must work as a group, but members should not be compelled to vote the party line on all issues.
Issues to be resolved include: By what means can a bill reach a floor vote? Procedures for committee assignments. What methods can discourage obstruction without suppressing debate? How can business be efficiently conducted without granting all power to the leadership?
Lee Drutman and Rob Oldham considered these issues in their report “Governing the House with Multiple Parties“. One recommendation is to require that bills that passed out of committee be placed on the floor calendar for a house vote. This came from Colorado’s GAVEL amendments, (Give A Vote to Every Legislator, passed in 1988 as citizens-initiated ballot measures). A separate provision would allow policy majorities to bring “legislation directly to the floor through a reformed discharge petition process and consensus calendar”. They also propose that the Rules Committee be “composed of the leaders of each party and their lieutenants. The parties in the majority coalition would hold a majority of seats, and the leader of the party with the most seats would chair the committee.”
Proportional Representation Systems
Our focus is on two systems: multi-member districts and Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP). For details about MMP, please visit Mixed Member Proportional Representation. We will soon post a page for multi-member district PR.
The Time is Now
PR is so far off the radar you often need to say “A party that wins 20% of the vote should win 20% of the seats” to jog the memory when you mention proportional representation. We aim to change that. People consider PR as a reform to be accomplished in the future. We cannot wait that long.
[1]Lee Drutman in Vox
Lee Drutman is the author of “Breaking the Two Party Doom Loop, the case for multi-party democracy in America” Oxford University Press. Lee Drutman Substack