Politics is a means to some end. Democracy, if we do it well.
One group believes the end justifies the means. The other group believes the means justify the end. I belong to the latter. One group thinks it’s almost always better to do something than to do nothing. The other group believes it’s always better to do nothing. I belong to the former. One group wants fewer people to vote. The other group wants more people to vote. The more voters the better, I say. One group regards reform with dread. The other says our nation is always in need of reform. Guess which side I come down on.
Reform is a long-haul overhaul, so I take the long view. Paradoxically, we are forced to use the political system to reform politics, which as many have noted is like redesigning the plane while you’re flying it. We pursue reform to avoid crash landing the plane.
Consider the daunting array of reforms needed in order to get our current political system airborne again:
- The Electoral College (majority rule must prevail, never minority rule)
- The Imperial Presidency (limit the number of executive orders, create stronger checks, impose enforceable penalties on abuse of power)
- The Supreme Court (term limits, a genuine code of ethics, institute impeachment procedures, expand the court as a last resort)
- The Filibuster (harder to use, easier to override)
- Gerrymandering/Redistricting (put the process in the hands of nonpartisan commissions)
- Campaign Financing (more transparency, limit corporate donations, stricter controls on PACs)
- Elections (make it easier to vote, outlaw voter suppression efforts)
- Impeachment (reduce the number of Senate votes needed to convict)
- Congress (failing to serve as a check on presidential overreach, they have become abuse of power’s primary enablers)
There’s more, of course, but until the American electorate grants a supermajority to the only party that has shown itself capable of, and committed to, reform, we’ll remain stuck in the muck.
We won’t reach that end in the Nov. 3 midterm election, but it could be the beginning if we elect enough transformational leaders to move us beyond our current paralyzed politics.
In the long view, our biggest obstacle is the Electoral College, which renders the popular vote irrelevant in the minds of most Americans and undermines the electorate’s faith in the political system, which in turn suppresses voter turnout. That inevitably produces minority rule, the first step toward authoritarianism. The minority has used the Electoral College twice in just the last 25 years to defeat the popular vote winner.
Our founders chose this poorly-thought-out scheme because they didn’t have enough faith in we the people. They feared “mob rule.” They feared our heads would be too easily turned by demagogues. Swayed by elitist bias, they thought they were protecting us. Ha! The Electoral College delivered us the most dangerous demagogue in our history.
Polling has long indicated that Americans support more progressive attitudes and legislation, but that is not reflected in our political representation, where minority opinions and policies too often rule, to our detriment. That must change. If political representation is not in line with political opinion, then we are not a free people.
When it comes to electing our presidents, the popular vote has to win twice. The Electoral College only has to win once, reducing the popular vote to second-class citizenship. It should be the other way around. If you win the popular vote and lose the Electoral College, it may be an indication of geographical weakness in your support, but the popular vote winner should still prevail. Otherwise the system favors minority rule, which denies the intent and consent of the governed.
In our current system of twisted logic, it is acceptable to lose the popular vote and still win. Democratically speaking, it makes far more sense to lose the Electoral College vote and still win. That affirms the primacy of the popular vote, where our priority should have been all along.
We don’t even have to get rid of the Electoral College. Just demote it.
If only one indicator prevails in a presidential election, it must be the popular vote. Anything else is anti-democratic. Eliminating the Electoral College — or at least rendering it secondary in presidential elections — is the first and most important reform. The rest will follow from it. A long road, perhaps, but let’s start the movement to switch to a popular-vote mindset.
We may have begun as a republic, but we have always been evolving toward our desired end — a progressive democracy, what we should have been all along.
It is what we will become, what we must become.
No matter how long it takes.