The author of that condemnation of "first past the post" voting clearly wants to do away with it.
A practical impossibility, and I am pretty sure that there's constitutional barriers to changing the voting system to one of the alternatives he suggests.
But what it does show is how we ended up with a two party system and how nearly impossible it is to supplant them once we're down to two.
It takes a big issue to get a third party to supplant and replace one of the entrenched two.
Way back 150 years ago or so, that was slavery. You might notice that the demise of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party also harbingers The Civil War. That's how big the issue at hand needs to be before a third party is anything but a spoiler.
Ross Perot was such a spoiler. The Green Party is often a spoiler on the Democrat Party.
The Tea Party would be a spoiler on the Republicans if they went out on their own as a party in and of themselves, but they've so far been content with slowly infecting and taking over the Republicans much as the Socialist Party infiltrated and absorbed the Democrats.
It's a catch 22. Vote your conscience, hand the election to the greater evil. Vote to stop the greater evil, you're voting for the lesser evil and that's not much better.
A practical impossibility, and I am pretty sure that there's constitutional barriers to changing the voting system to one of the alternatives he suggests.
But what it does show is how we ended up with a two party system and how nearly impossible it is to supplant them once we're down to two.
It takes a big issue to get a third party to supplant and replace one of the entrenched two.
Way back 150 years ago or so, that was slavery. You might notice that the demise of the Whig Party and the rise of the Republican Party also harbingers The Civil War. That's how big the issue at hand needs to be before a third party is anything but a spoiler.
Ross Perot was such a spoiler. The Green Party is often a spoiler on the Democrat Party.
The Tea Party would be a spoiler on the Republicans if they went out on their own as a party in and of themselves, but they've so far been content with slowly infecting and taking over the Republicans much as the Socialist Party infiltrated and absorbed the Democrats.
It's a catch 22. Vote your conscience, hand the election to the greater evil. Vote to stop the greater evil, you're voting for the lesser evil and that's not much better.
