Those who cheat are shunned
Don’t cheat!
I’m sure many of you heard that when you were young and learned how to play games. Cheating is never allowed, always spurned by players of integrity, and considered to be a high crime—even if it is only a friendly game of Monopoly™. To be called a cheat causes ostracism that sticks like glue long after the game is over. Will the cheat ever be included to play again?
Cheating is forbidden in sports
Matt Norlander reported via cbssports.com that, “It’s time for March Madness!” He offers a printable version of the upcoming NCAA tournament bracket pool for your personal use to encourage the excitement.
If you enjoy college basketball, this is the season that is well named: March Madness. 68 college teams compete to bring home the trophy in a single-elimination scramble. (See Wikipedia’s NCAA Tournament description.) The tournament promises a lot of noise, a lot excitement, and a lot of pure athleticism. No cheating is allowed!
Cheating is shunned in our patriotic duty
Basketball may not be your thing, however. Still, we collectively abhor those that cheat. Rene Chun’s article in The Atlantic, “Why Americans Don’t Cheat on Their Taxes,” points out how remarkable Americans are. We don’t cheat on our taxes. The article quotes a 2017 IRS survey by saying:
The majority of Americans (88%) say it is not at all acceptable to cheat on taxes;
this ethical attitude is not changing over time.
The article calls attention to the Voluntary Compliance Rate (VCR) among nations. America’s VCR has consistently hovered between 81%-84%. Germany sits at 68%, Italy at 62%. America does not revere the cheat! We follow our patriotic duties and pay our fair share of taxes.
Political cheating is common
Let’s get back to politics where cheating seems to be a kind of password to gain more power.
It doesn’t’ require a lot of insight to realize that there is a great political divide in this nation. The contentious rhetoric from the left and right has stepped far beyond courtesy and respect. Pundits make their case as to who is to blame and why and what the future may bring. I prefer to focus on how we may heal.
We find common ground when we refuse to cheat
We must all find and acknowledge common ground. We, as the nation’s citizenry, are not so different from each other. There are many things we hold in common with each other that we should not forget or ignore. The abhorrence of cheating is one. Be it a sports contest or participating in contributing our fair tax share, we are united in our sense of fair play. We don’t respect the cheat!
Cheating because of ignorance
Or do we cheat? I contend we do when we elect a president; but, in fairness, we cheat out of ignorance.
Our nation is formed on the democratic basis that encourages voting citizens to cast their ballots in a collective form of governance. Every vote counts is a common premise that we revere.
When we learn of circumstances wherein voters are denied access to voting, we are appalled and the word “cheat” quickly comes to mind. We recognize these instances as travesties and take the legal steps to correct and shun to perpetrators. Voter suppression is despised.
Winner-Takes-All causes us to cheat
Yet, we commonly deny a large bloc of voters the opportunity to have their votes represented when voting for our nation’s president. By my own analysis, almost 46% of the votes cast in the previous 15 elections were set aside before the Electoral College was engaged!My own state of Oregon denied 51.5% of the votes representation in 2016. This is vote suppression! This cheating is an outrage!
All states are guilty of this form of cheating — denying voting citizens a fair representative voting voice. Presidential elections can bring out the worst in us.
The culprit, though, is not an individual or group or nefarious legislation. The villain here is the winner-takes-all aspect of the voting process. We have participated in this process for almost 200 years, ignoring the intent of our founding fathers and the presidential election process outlined in our U.S. Constitution.
Equal Voice Voting restores fairness
Equal Voice Voting (EVV) eliminates the winner-takes-all aspect and opens the door for greater voting participation. All votes count with EVV! It’s not a complicated idea—to refrain from cheating and ensure every ballot matters.
EVV’s formula (See The Equal Voice Voting formula.) apportions voting representation on a state-by-state basis. It removes the winner-takes-all restrictions from how we currently engage the Electoral College, permitting voting voices from all citizens – all constituents – to matter. It’s fair and closes the door to those who cheat.
Common integrity can heal us
Though there currently is a great political divide that is destructive to our everyday rhetoric, harming families and friend, we can heal. We can close the gap of our political perspectives. We can if we stop cheating those who want to vote, who want to exercise their patriotic duty, and include them.
People do cheat. It’s a human temptation. But as noted above, we don’t favor it and we strive to limit it as much as possible. We demand fairness in our sports. We collectively and willingly pay our taxes. We come together over this common ground of refusing to cheat. In this we are more like each other than not. We can restore our political divides and our election integrity.
Let’s adopt Equal Voice Voting!