[EM] Third parties

[Richard, the VoteFair guy]

Here's a frequently overlooked issue about election methods.  It came to 
my attention when Michael Ossipoff repeatedly suggested I was not voting 
honestly in his poll.

Michael Ossipoff wrote:
 >>  You dislike all current parties? Have you read all of their
 >>  platforms? ...
 >>  Regarding the platform-policies & leaders of the parties you’ve
 >>  heard of, other than the Democrats & Republicans—what about them
 >>  isn’t wise, problem-solving?

[... longer version, with repetition, is at bottom]

Yes, I honestly do NOT like ANY political party.

That's why I answered his which-is-your-favorite-party? poll question 
with something like "none of them."

I dislike all political parties for the same reason:  None of them offer 
effective solutions that will solve big problems at the SOURCE of the 
problems.

As the author of "The Creative Problem Solver's Toolbox," I know the 
best way to solve a problem is to deal with the SOURCE of the problem. 
(Or, the "root" of the problem.)

Yet all political parties, including both major parties and all third 
parties, mostly promote "solutions" that mostly deal with the SYMPTOMS 
of each problem!  Without solving the underlying problem.

If anyone is interested in what I regard to be well-designed solutions 
that would solve big political problems at the SOURCE of the problem, 
here's a link to a long webpage in which I describe three such solutions.

https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/cpsolver/websites/blob/master/VoteFairDotOrg/taker_tactics.html

In that long webpage I recommend adopting two business-specific tax 
credits (for businesses), and (of course) adopting a well-designed 
election system.

Simplified explanations of these solutions are in my e-book "The Goat 
Spitting Secret: This Comedy Unmasks Why Congress Is Dysfunctionally Nutty."

I'm not aware of any political party that prioritizes anything even 
slightly similar to the solutions I describe.

That's why I don't like any political parties.

That's why I virtually never vote for third-party candidates.  Along 
with the fact that third parties virtually never offer viable candidates 
-- which was discussed in a different thread.

Taking a peek into the future ...

After ranked choice ballots get adopted for U.S. elections, third-party 
candidates are likely to win some elections for awhile, until big 
parties wake up and realize they need to offer better candidates.  This 
transition also may involve big parties offering two nominees from each 
party (the second one perhaps being the candidate with the second-most 
plurality votes in the primary election), and those second nominees 
winning instead of the first, money-backed nominees.

Hopefully, shortly into this transition to better election methods and 
better winning candidates, big parties will offer better candidates.  If 
they don't, at least one of those big parties will get abandoned in 
favor of a third party that offers an effective-solutions-based party 
platform, along with wise problem-solving candidates who are worth 
voting for.

In the meantime I'm promoting election-method reforms like the imperfect 
one Portland will use in November to elect our city council (3-seat-STV, 
no primary, great!) and mayor (IRV, sigh, overvotes dismissed, sigh), 
and the ballot initiative (IRV with no mention of "overvotes") that will 
be on the November ballot throughout Oregon.

I have a dream that Portland and/or Oregon may begin to embrace solving 
political problems at the source of our problems.  It can't happen under 
our single-choice-ballot election system.  I believe it can happen when 
a better election system arrives.

Richard Fobes
The VoteFair guy
Author of "The Creative Problem Solver's Toolbox," which has been 
published around the world in 10 languages

...................................

Michael Ossipoff wrote to Richard:

 >>     You dislike all current parties? Have you read all of their
 >>     platforms? If not, how do you know you dislike them? What do you
 >>     dislike about the *policies* offered by some of the “3rd-parties”
 >>     that you’ve heard of?
 >> ...
 >>     All of them? Regarding the main ones you’ve heard of, which of
 >>     their platform-policies do you dislike?
 >> ...
 >>     But which platform-policy of the main other parties that you’ve
 >>     heard of do you dislike?
 >> ...
 >>     Regarding the platform-policies & leaders of the parties you’ve
 >>     heard of, other than the Democrats & Republicans—what about them
 >>     isn’t wise, problem-solving?