{"id":4375,"date":"2011-06-11T08:52:14","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T14:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonapollovoss.local\/?p=4375"},"modified":"2018-09-21T02:06:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T06:06:07","slug":"an-idea-that-might-just-improve-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/2011\/06\/11\/an-idea-that-might-just-improve-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"An Idea That Might Just Improve Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">I normally don&#8217;t blog about politics except as it affects investing.\u00a0 I consider myself a lukewarm follower of the political scene &#8211; having given up on politics as the real source of power in the United States.\u00a0 One person = one vote, but one dollar = one vote; so businesses are the real source of power in our culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">However, as many of you who follow the blog know, I am simultaneously an arch-capitalist and a critic of capitalism.\u00a0 I feel that capitalism is a great good because it so efficiently organizes resources around the preferences of people.\u00a0 In other words, stuff gets done.\u00a0 But much damage has been done to the capitalist system by corrupt individuals and the businesses that they command, such that Joe and Jane Blow, myself included, have a difficult time trusting the scions of capitalism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Even <a href=\"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web2011\/01\/19\/what-my-intuition-tells-me-now-should-i-take-a-bite-of-apple-a-case-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple, that cultish company<\/a>, and maker of slick consumer products that even a curmudgeon like me loves, behaves badly.\u00a0 To my way of thinking, <a href=\"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web2011\/04\/21\/what-my-intuition-tells-me-now-apple-iphone-and-ipad-track-where-you-are\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Apple is guilty of arrogant hubris<\/a>.\u00a0 So what is needed is an authority that can check the rampant power of businesses and truly represent the citizenry.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Unfortunately, as we all know, the political situation in the United States &#8211; especially at the national level &#8211; is even more stupid and corrupted than are businesses.\u00a0 So how can we change things?\u00a0 Here&#8217;s an idea that came to me in a moment of intuitive inspiration that I hope catches fire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">All political ballots going forward need to include a voting category entitled something like: &#8220;None of the above.&#8221;\u00a0 That category would have the weight of a decision, not just an abstain.\u00a0 So if the &#8220;none of the above&#8221; category got the most number of votes in an election then the election process would have to be started over.\u00a0 The candidates that had run before could run again, but the election process could be opened up to new candidates.\u00a0 So literally the election process would start entirely over.\u00a0 Candidates would have to defeat the &#8220;no&#8221; votes against them!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">What are the advantages of this system?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">A chance for citizens to say &#8220;no&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">One of the problems with the way democratic systems have been set up is that there is no ability to say &#8220;no.&#8221;\u00a0 Regardless of whether or not you and I vote, say, because we don&#8217;t like the candidates, the election is held and someone takes over in office.\u00a0 This happens even if there isn&#8217;t a quorum of voters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">So even if the majority of the citizens don&#8217;t like the bums that are running in an election, those candidates might still get elected because there is no way to say &#8220;no.&#8221;\u00a0 How stupid is this?\u00a0 For all of the illustrious, beautiful ideas of the framers of the United States they seemed to have overlooked this simple point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">As currently set up you can only vote &#8220;no&#8221; by voting for the other candidate or not voting at all.\u00a0 That has to change, if&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Alignment of politicians with the citizenry<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If we want politicians to truly be in alignment with the citizenry then we have to be able to say &#8220;no.&#8221;\u00a0 This is how contracting works throughout the rest of our culture.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If you don&#8217;t like the products of a business then you don&#8217;t buy those products.\u00a0 Eventually that business will stop making those products &#8211; they are not shoved down your throat.\u00a0 But elected officials are foisted upon everyone, even if the majority didn&#8217;t want him\/her in office.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t like a job you can quit.\u00a0 If a business doesn&#8217;t like you they can fire you.\u00a0 If the military doesn&#8217;t like you they can discharge you.\u00a0 But what is the mechanism of saying &#8220;no&#8221; in our political system?\u00a0 There isn&#8217;t one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If each of us could vote &#8220;none of the above,&#8221; and that category won on election day, and the election had to be held again, then the candidates that ran again would have to run on issues that people genuinely cared about.\u00a0 Candidates for office would have to actually win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Think about it.\u00a0 The purpose of a representative democracy with elected <em>representatives<\/em> is that they are supposed to vote the interests of their constituencies.\u00a0 Yet even in heated national presidential elections less than half of the voting public votes; to say nothing of local elections.\u00a0 Clearly there is a lack of interest on the part of the citizenry.\u00a0 My hunch is that&#8217;s because there is a lack of accord between voters and those who would represent us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">But if we had to hold the election over and over again until the &#8220;none of the above&#8221; category &#8220;lost&#8221; the election, then politicians would be newly accountable to represent the interest of the people.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">More people would vote<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">As I said above, most people no longer vote in elections, even in important elections.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Either they are lazy &#8211; which is certainly true &#8211; or, they don&#8217;t like the candidates, and feel those candidates don&#8217;t really represent their interests &#8211; which I consider to be a greater truth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Think about it.\u00a0 If you had the ability to effectively vote &#8220;no&#8221; for a candidate then your vote becomes important again.\u00a0 That ability gives you an incentive to participate in the democracy again as opposed to the limp &#8220;abstain&#8221; that happens when you don&#8217;t show up to vote.\u00a0 Now you show up because you know that your disgust will be logged and counted.\u00a0 Amen!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Greater voter participation means that politicians have to be more accountable and more appealing to the general citizen.\u00a0 Greater voter participation and then the democracy will begin to resemble its citizenry.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Help cleave the influence of special interests<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Overwhelmingly most people in the United States are for some form of limited gun control, yet the National tRifle Association repeatedly has wielded outsized influence over the outcome of elections.\u00a0 This is possible because its membership donates generously to politicians who vote in accord with their narrow interests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If we all had the ability to vote &#8220;none of the above&#8221; in elections then special interests would hold less sway.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the people opposed to that flavor of special interest influence would have the ability to say &#8220;no.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">In part democracy is crumbling because there are too many &#8220;single issue voters.&#8221;\u00a0 So politicians find a small number of single issue voter hot button issues and campaign on those issues; and this becomes a part of their campaign issue portfolio.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">But because as voters we have no ability to say &#8220;no&#8221; to the politician, we are forced to accept the whole campaign issue portfolio even if we are strongly opposed to one aspect of that portfolio.\u00a0 The only way to say &#8220;no&#8221; is to vote for the other candidate.\u00a0 But typically that other candidate has a majority of distasteful issues in her\/his campaign issue portfolio.\u00a0 So effectively, you have to accept something that is distasteful to you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Instead, if you can say &#8220;none of the above&#8221; then the politicians that lose, are likely to poll the citizenry to find out why they lost.\u00a0 Then they will see that their kowtowing to special interests cost them the election.\u00a0 So when the election is held again the special interest campaign issue mysteriously disappears from the campaign issue portfolio.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Checking the power of businesses<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">One of the reasons that the business community has become so powerful in the United States is because of the weakness of politicians and the political system.\u00a0 If you improve democracy then you strengthen it.\u00a0 If you strengthen it then democracy can more adequately check the power of business.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Campaigns more competitive on the issues<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Right now most election campaign issue portfolios have as their &#8220;center&#8221; the center of gravity of the voting population.\u00a0 Then conservative and liberal candidates will add some issues to the portfolio to appeal to their specific constituents.\u00a0 So campaigns are fought to &#8220;not lose&#8221; more than to win.\u00a0 Why?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Candidates are not stupid, because there is no ability to say &#8220;no&#8221; to the two folks in the final election, they know that most everyone who shows up is not voting &#8220;for&#8221; them, but &#8220;against&#8221; the other person.\u00a0 That&#8217;s why campaign ads are so negative.\u00a0 If candidates can make the other person distasteful then they feel that they are securing votes for their own campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">But what about the voters who don&#8217;t like either candidate and find both of them distasteful?\u00a0 Because they don&#8217;t have a voice they don&#8217;t show up, so if you are a candidate, who cares?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Having the ability for voters to say &#8220;none of the above&#8221; would mean that candidates can&#8217;t just win by &#8220;not losing.&#8221;\u00a0 After all, an election victory would be secured by securing the votes of those who voted against the other guy, but also &#8220;for&#8221; you.\u00a0 That&#8217;s because folks do have the option of saying &#8220;no&#8221; to both.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Now I know what some of you are thinking: what if an election repeatedly ends up in a &#8220;none of the above&#8221; vote?\u00a0 Won&#8217;t important issues go unattended?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">If you could tell me just what issue is so important as to require the immediate attention of most politicians, I would love to hear about it.\u00a0 The United States has many gigantic, seemingly intransigent problems.\u00a0 The size of those problems grows and grows due to the constant procrastination of politicians.\u00a0 Here I am talking about:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Social Security and Medicare &#8211; which are bankrupting the country<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Budget deficits leading to accelerating total government debt<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Campaign finance reform<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Alternative energy<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">The unemployment situation in the United States<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Two ongoing wars that we all grew tired of long ago and can no longer see the benefit of fighting anymore<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">And I could go on.\u00a0 Sans a state of war, the fact is that Congress and the Presidency have proven time and again that most issues just are not that timely.\u00a0 What I feel and think would happen in a democracy where &#8220;none of the above&#8221; is a choice is that the first several election cycles would be turbulent.\u00a0 Candidates and voters would need to feel out the system.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Candidates would have to figure out how to reconstruct campaign issue portfolios to win the election.\u00a0 That would mean a re-tooling of campaign strategies.\u00a0 But eventually, since the system would become more competitive, the best candidates would win and influence other, future candidates to follow suit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Voters would eventually have to adapt to the system.\u00a0 A whole class of voters that currently do not vote would have to be coaxed back in to the system to participate.\u00a0 I am guessing that the novelty of being able to say &#8220;no&#8221; would entice a number of fence sitters to show up in the first several elections post the &#8220;none of the above&#8221; change.\u00a0 If democracy were to improve based on the &#8220;none of the above&#8221; change, then voter participation numbers and sophistication would grow over time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Spread the word, damn it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Jason<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">[This post has been edited for typos and greater clarity.]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I normally don&#8217;t blog about politics except as it affects investing.\u00a0 I consider myself a lukewarm follower of the political scene &#8211; having given up on politics as the real source of power in the United States.\u00a0 One person = one vote, but one dollar = one vote; so businesses are the real source of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-the-blog","category-the-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4375\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonapollovoss.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}