[EM] SODA rationale, part 3 of 4: Pigs and angry birds (was: Record activity on the EM list?)

Jameson Quinn jameson.quinn at gmail.com
Wed Aug 3 01:20:30 PDT 2011


*Continuing to consider SODA's advantages with groups often skeptical of
reform....*

**
Another group that's worth considering is *implacable voting reform
opponents*. Lobbyists profiting from their ability to manipulate plurality;
corrupt and lazy politicians who only care about their safe seat; and people
who have calculated that the plurality's distortions work to their partisan
advantage; all of these are groups who will never support reform. And, as we
saw in the anti-AV campaign in the UK, such people can make a lot of headway
with arguments that, though they are not quite criminally mendacious because
they contain some half-truths, are still fundamentally dishonest. The goal
with these people is to de-fang them, to remove their strongest arguments.
And SODA, as system which is pareto dominant over plurality, does just that.
Of course, opponents, like ugly green pigs, will still construct arguments
against reform. But without anything honest to sustain them, these flimsy
anti-reform arguments will collapse when hit with the angry bird of simple
truth.

-
*
*
*Part 4 of 4 will consider how SODA is also better than other good reforms
(approval, median, range, and Condorcet) in its process, which I think would
encourage negotiation and a healthier debate. But I'll take a pause first,
as I think these three will spark enough discussion for now.*
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