[EM] Better Choices for Democracy

[Michael Garman]

> If we're gonna "correct" First-Past-The-Post, let's make sure that the
correction itself is as correct as it can possibly be

I, for one, don’t believe in making the perfect the enemy of the good.

On Sat, Jun 21, 2025 at 3:48 PM Michael Garman <
michael.garman at rankthevote.us> wrote:

> Good luck to you, my friend. You can keep whining till you’re blue in the
> face, but it’s not going to get you anywhere. If you spent a tenth as much
> time on movement building as you do moaning about FV you might have won
> something once.
>
> On Sat, Jun 21, 2025 at 3:45 PM robert bristow-johnson via
> Election-Methods <election-methods at lists.electorama.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> > On 06/21/2025 12:34 PM EDT Michael Garman <
>> michael.garman at rankthevote.us> wrote:
>> >
>> >
>> > If you don’t like the strategy, come up with a better one. Fight fire
>> with fire, not with emails to a list read by the ivory tower set.
>> >
>>
>> The better strategy is telling the truth.
>>
>> Condorcet came up with a better method than Hare.  He did it a half
>> century before Hare.
>>
>> But, like Trump, you're saying that better marketing means that it's a
>> better product.
>>
>> I'm saying that the fundamental principles of democracy are more
>> important.
>>
>> When I critique FairVote (would this be fighting fire with fire?) they
>> respond with the falsehood that I am anti-RCV or that I am harming the
>> movement or, at the least, that I am making perfection be the enemy of the
>> good.
>>
>> If we're gonna "correct" First-Past-The-Post, let's make sure that the
>> correction itself is as correct as it can possibly be.  That means, in all
>> contingencies where this is possible (I acknowledge the existence of
>> Arrow's theorem and of the Condorcet paradox), that we must **always**
>> value our votes equally.  RankTheVote and FairVote don't believe that.
>> RankTheVote and FairVote say that in the cases of Alaska 2022 (August) and
>> Burlington 2009, we should *not* value our votes equally.
>>
>> All sorts of good, bad, and half-baked organizations and movements get
>> proficient at marketing their good, bad, or half-baked ideas.  Standing on
>> the success of your marketing does not mean you're doing the world any good.
>>
>> --
>>
>> r b-j . _ . _ . _ . _ rbj at audioimagination.com
>>
>> "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
>> --
>>
>> r b-j . _ . _ . _ . _ rbj at audioimagination.com
>>
>> "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
>>
>> .
>> .
>> .
>> ----
>> Election-Methods mailing list - see https://electorama.com/em for list
>> info
>>
>
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