Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Voting is Broken

Let me start by saying that we should all vote.  Voting is important.  There, I said it.

Voting is broken.  In our system, we are allowed to select a single candidate for each elected position.  This inevitably leads to voting for the "lesser of two evils."  How many times have you heard this?  You don't really like either candidate, but you'd rather have X than Y.


Our voting method also discourages third party candidates from running.  Lets pretend that last year the Republican beat the Democrat candidate 52% to 48%.  This year, a third party candidate appears, taking 6% of the Republican's voters.  That would put the new totals at 48%, 46% and 6% where the Democrat wins.  So having more options for representation caused the 48% minority vote to win, because 6% of voters voted for a candidate that didn't really have a chance.

All of this has lead to the two major political parties in America having way too much power.  The people who control the party's agenda are essentially forcing any potential candidates to adopt that agenda or they don't have the support of the party.  It's a bad situation for new, evolving ideas.  It's a good situation if you want the same old, broken policies to keep driving our country.

Can you imagine a world where there is a Pro-Choice Republican?  What about a Pro-Life Democrat?  How about a Democrat who supports lowering taxes and is against amnesty?  Or maybe a Republican that supports raising the minimum wage and is pro gay marriage?  None of these things are possible because we have a two-party system that forces candidates to support the party's platform. 


Please watch the following video to get a better understanding of why our voting system is terrible.



Now watch the video below to see a much better method of voting!