[EM] re3 to Fobes

[David L Wetzell]

RF:Interesting.  You/David seem to be focused on the balance of power
between left versus right, whereas I'm focused on the balance of power
between voters ("up") versus special interests ("down").

dlw: If neither can dominate and we have some exit threat between them and
away from them, possibly changing the specific two parties at the top or
forcing them to merge with a growing (or regionally strong) third party,
then it'll be easier to check the influence of special interests on both of
them.

RF:In my book I promote ways for U.S. elections to produce more
proportional results, but I'm sure the approach is unlike whatever you
have in mind, which I presume is STV.

dlw: I support the 3-5 seat nat'l house of reps elections that FairVote is
promoting, but I have a soft spot for 3-seat LR Hare for state assembly
elections, which make it so that a local third party can win a seat and be
decisive about which major party is in power in the state assembly with as
little as 10% of the local vote.  This is I believe critical for making the
major parties pay more heed to the rights of minorities.

RF:If your perspective is shared by the Green party, that could explain why
the Green party says they promote the use of IRV, yet they do not use it
for their own primary elections.

dlw: Yup.

RF: I think that one of the best ways to promote election reform (of any/all
types) is for a third party to adopt any method -- even IRV -- for their
primary elections because that would force state election organizations
to accommodate it on the ballot.  Or if a state's election rules do not
allow it, then that party would do well to offer a candidate for
Secretary of State (or whichever office handles election issues) and
highlight the issue in the voter's pamphlet.

More realistically I expect election-method reform to come to the United
States after it has occurred in other nations, which is the same pattern
that occurred for women getting the right to vote.

dlw: I believe that if the GOP civil war grows that they will emerge a
weaker center-right-ish party who will have the right incentive to push for
American forms of PR that even the playing field between the two major
parties and help their tea-party-faction to exit from their party into
third parties that will only be influential if they can move the political
center (aka, not unlike MLKjr/Gandhi did).  I am trying to get #OWSers to
see how 3-seat LR Hare would enable the proliferation of LTPs whose
smallness would embody their ethos and more reliably provide air-support
for their ongoing experiments in local democracy.

I also think that 3rd party aficionados will recognize that the imperative
is to incorporate the use of PR asap so as to mitigate the cut-throat
competition between the two major parties that prevents us from making
progress on so many issues that desperately need change and to trust that
as a result of the changed rules that both major parties would be seriously
changed for the better even if their names do not change.
dlw
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