oops... originally sent only to Marcus by mistake...
On 12/28/18 6:59 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/28/politics/maine-governor-certifies-congressional-election/index.html
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*From:* Steven A Smith <sasm...@swcp.com>
*Sent:* Thursday, December 27, 2018 9:50:02 AM
*To:* Marcus Daniels
*Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] 2019 - The end of Trumpism
Marcus writes:
Steve writes:
"Democracy is the tyranny of the majority over the minority"
The majority elected Hillary Clinton.
Marcus
The Electoral College is archaic and ambiguous:
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html#changes.
Perhaps our current orange-tinted clusterf*ck will continue to
degenerate to the point of motivating the necessary will to mount the
necessary constitutional amendment.
Republicans are acutely good at gaming vulnerable systems to their
benefit (gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.) but the DNC and
Hillary proved to be their equal during the primary with Superdelegates.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/11/democrat-primary-elections-need-reform
Ranked Choice voting seems ultimately yet more promising to *improve*
the selection of our representatives. I believe that Maine is running
that experiment for us now at the State level. Arrow's Impossibility
is real but no more significant IMO than the real-world ambiguities
and paradoxes introduced by practical realities such as voter
suppression and fraud, system hacking and mechanical errors (e.g.
hanging chads)... Technology (can a direct democracy be facilitated by
something like block-chain technology?) might resolve some of these
questions, but very likely it will miss the more fundamental
philosophical questions.
We are a Federal Republic with a Representative Democracy for good
reasons... some of the context of those "good reasons" surely has
evolved over the 250ish years it has been in place while the
mechanisms maybe have not evolved as quickly. Individual and small
groups of Opportunistic, Brash, Narcissists can usually outmanouvre
such a slow moving leviathan. I'm not sure what to do about that.
How does Direct Democracy distinguish itself from Populism and Mob
Rule? What constitutes (guarantees/assures?) an engaged and informed
electorate?
But the question remains: Is there a better way to meet the goals of
governance than the democracies we have tried and/or imagined? How do
we balance (or align?) the needs of the group and of the individual?
Is "Democracy the worst form of government except for all of the
others we have tried" (Churchill paraphrase)?
- Steve
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