Rethinking Political Representation
American polarization and partisanship are at some of the highest levels we’ve seen in decades, and there aren’t any signs of that lessening in the near future. While there are no easy solutions to lowering the temperature, we can still consider ways in which we can restructure our political system so that it works to bring us together rather than pull us apart. In my last essay, I wrote about adopting a popular vote method for electing the president. In this letter, I want to discuss reforming the legislative branch.
For the sake of this essay, let’s set aside the inherent and obvious problems with the Senate and focus solely on the House of Representatives. As a result of gerrymandering and partisan sorting, very few House districts are competitive anymore. This has turned red districts redder and blue districts bluer and left precious little room for moderation. At the same time, our first-past-the-post system of voting awards candidates who win the most votes, though not necessarily a majority and certainly not a consensus. Both of these phenomena have resulted in our representatives actually representing very few of us. So, what can be done to correct this growing problem?
One solution, proposed by Lee Drutman of New America, is proportional representation. This method of government would involve electing multiple people at once to govern the same region. The seats allotted to winners would be based on the proportion of votes each got. The result is that all voters will have at least someone representing their interests. This method also makes third party candidacies more viable. According to Drutman, this could be accomplished in one of two ways: states either shrink the number of districts they have and keep their representatives, or they keep the number of districts and increase the number of representatives for each. Another, and more common, reform to representation is ranked choice voting. This would do away with our first-past-the-post, binary method of voting and, instead, give every voter a meaningful choice. Instead of the winner being whoever got the most first place votes, it ends up being whoever is most preferred by all voters. This, too, encourages more third-party candidacies and creates an incentive for candidates to be more consensus-minded.
There’s no good reason why our system of government should remain so stagnant. Reforming our government so that it better reflects the electorate is sensible and will lead to stronger and more flexible coalitions than the zero-sum partisanship we have now. Our two-party system doesn’t work for most Americans. We need to adjust to political realities and course correct.
