We Can Build A Better Future
With the passing of the winter solstice, our longest night of the season is behind us and it’s time to look to the future. 2019 stretches out before us and we may be viewing it with increased hope or we might be attending to worries we’re surprised we now entertain.
This blog is political, focusing on our presidential election process and the need for civil discourse for all of us. Being the proverbial optimist that I am, I see both as opportunities to improve and build a better future. Yes, we can!
Another Speaks Of A Better Future
I’m not alone in that sentiment, thankfully. While I grow ever more concerned about our nation and the blue marbleof a world we live on, I also sense that the positive wins out over time.
Former Secretary of State, John Kerry, in his book “Every Day Is Extra” provides sage advice:
…the abiding truth I’ve learned in my journey is you can change your country and you can change the world. You may fail at first, but you can’t give in. You have to get up and fight the fight again, but you can get there. The big steps and the small steps all add up. History is cumulative. We all can contribute to change if we’re willing to enter the contest for the future, often against the odds.
I heartily recommend the book if you are interested in some of the behind-the-scenes that helped form our national policies. It’s a well-written perspective of the challenges and workings employed toward a better future.
Hope For Our Future Is Built On Many Gains
Secretary Kerry has justifiable reason to be jaded, skeptical, and reluctant about our future. Still, he wrote this book in the midst of some of the greater political turmoil of our nation’s history. In this midst of much dark history he reaches for the hope born out of positive collaborations and gains, however miniscule they might have seemed at the time. It speaks of hope for our future.
I am hopeful that Washington will soon come to its senses, that our governmental institutions will hold and serve, and the nation will endure. As the wrinkles of our society smooth out over time, and it may all take awhile, we as a people will be better. We will become more aware of our individual and collective responsibilities and calls for engagement.
Most importantly, we will come to have greater empathy for and listen better to each other. We will listen to those who are gifted to truly lead and may learn not to follow those who are bent to lead us astray. We will realize we each of us matter even when we disagree and seem to be divided. Those divisions will narrow.
A Better Future For Presidential Elections
We all want effective leadership. We all want a president who understands the role and is able to guide, inspire, and encourage a positive vision for our future. We also want our votes to count when we make our presidential elections. Our future depends on it.
This is why I persist in telling everyone that Equal Voice Voting (EVV) holds a promise of a fair presidential election. It is the only option I’ve encountered that can promise every vote to count and for every state to matter. EVV is a simple proportional voting method (see The Equal Voice Voting formula) that rids the election of the winner-takes-all cancer (see A Cancer Is Attacking Our Presidential Elections).
The Presidential Election Two-Step
Presidential elections are a two-step process wherein the popular votes cast within a state first suffer through the winner-takes-all filter. This first step discards ballots for candidates who did not win the plurality of votes in their state. Currently, our nation suffers about 46% of ballots cast to be set aside (vote suppression), never being considered for the Electoral College. The second step in the process translates the remaining votes into a state’s electoral votes. It is a travesty that can be easily remedied.
For example, Oregon threw out 51% of its ballots cast in 2016 (1,049,342 votes) and then translated the remaining 1,002,106 votes into seven electoral votes. That means that only if you voted for Hillary was your vote represented in the election! That’s vote suppression! It’s not democracy at work.
If you’re interested in the 2016 vote suppression in other states, see the State-by-State 2016 Analysis.
Equal Voice Voting In An Honest Future Democracy
EVV is the only voting approach that removes the winner-takes-all approach without a national constitutional amendment, recognizes our nation is a constitutional republic, and fulfills the true vision of our Founding Fathers.
Tell your legislators to set aside their political party loyalty and recognize that the presidential votes of all of their constituents deserve representation. It takes courage for them to counter the circular logic that political parties espouse generated from their fear of forfeiting political advantage. An honest democracy can only emerge when all votes count.
Tell your legislators you favor Equal Voice Voting. Our future, your future, depends on it!