The United States is a Representative Democratic Republic but lately the representation part has been a bit dysfunctional. As someone who has voted and donated to both parties, I receive a lot of emails and mail from both parties. Republican senders tend to assume I am a hardcore rightwing Republican and the Democratic senders that I am a progressive. The correspondence I get insult, denigrate, misrepresent, and lie about the other party’s members as well as the issues. It’s obviously a very ugly war between the two parties. I’ve met with politicians and some of them who were on the more extreme side consider the people who voted for them as their team, the real Americans, while they strongly dislike those who did not vote for them and even consider them their enemies. According to Gallup 2019 28% of US voters are Republicans, 30% Democrat, and 41% Independents. However, the way the primaries work the extreme candidates from each party tend to get elected. Essentially, many of us if not most of us lack representation.
The author Tom Mast, an engineer, manager, military, has an extensive experience with meeting and communicating with congressmen while representing various non-profits. He has done extensive research into today’s strongly partisan and dysfunctional congress and in the book, he references in depth academic research into the issue as well as lighter reading such as the Economist. He notes that this situation is particularly bad in the United States and that having just two viable parties is fairly unique among democracies. He explains the symptoms and more importantly he examines the causes and presents solutions. He did not come up with these solutions, but he is endorsing what he believes are the best proposals.
He points out that having just two parties has led to the polarization we are seeing but that the current US election mechanics makes having just two parties more or less unavoidable. The election mechanics is for the most part not laid out in the constitution but has been created along the way. The law requiring one member house districts (one congressman per district) was created in 1967 with good intentions but with bad results. He discusses gerrymandering, that politicians chose their voters instead of the other way around. Around 85% of house districts are non-competitive districts, or safe districts, meaning the winner is essentially decided before the election. Gerrymandering is especially bad here in Texas where I live. In 2020 the party in charge changed the district map to the point where some districts looked like snakes, just to guarantee that they would get as many representatives as possible without having to worry much about voters. He discusses the closed partisan primaries which often result in the most extreme candidates representing their party.
Among the solutions he suggests are fixing gerrymandering, ranked choice voting, final five voting, eliminating party primaries, allow for multimember districts, etc. These changes will allow for more than two viable parties, allow independents and centrists to be represented, reduce polarization, block voting, and end the war between the parties. I certainly agree with the author’s assessment. The polarization has gone too far and the war between the parties has become ridiculous. It is time for something better and I think his suggestions are very good. It is time to discuss them. The book is non-partisan and honest, it is well organized, well written, well researched and compelling. I highly recommend this book.
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