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Proportional
Representation - Will it give us functional government?
Shaun Kerry, M.D.
Diplomate, American Board
of Psychiatry and Neurology
One of the concerns in the electoral
process is fairness of representation. There are many groups,
rich, poor, black, white, ad infinitum.
Some extremely intelligent people
believe that the reason that young people don't vote, is because of the
winner-take-all system. For example, if a liberal candidate wins
51% of the vote, he gets 100% of the control, and that isn't fair. |
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Some people have proposed the concept of
proportional representation
in which representation is proportional to the number of votes
cast. Check out the link for more information. I would not object
to such a plan. But if one were to consider proportional
representation as a central, primary
solution to the dysfunction in our
democracy, he would be missing the real issue.
I believe that the apathy in elections today
is due to the fact that the candidates are chosen by
political parties, and not the people.
The candidate must be loyal to their
party, and the party must be loyal to their financial supporters.
The people have almost no choice in the selection of the candidates.
That is NOT democratic.
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Our system of democracy selects
people for their ability to campaign, rather than to govern. Candidates don't inspire people because they
act like salesmen rather than statesmen and problem solvers. The
ideal candidate would use 100% of his brain rather than 10%. His
mental processes would be on an entirely different plane. He would
describe broken social |
systems, and a step by step plan for fixing them. He would show
that when that occurs, that EVERYONE wins. He wouldn't lust for
power. He wouldn't beg for your vote. Workaholic people
obsessed with power and control are the last people we want in political
office.
Some people see the distribution of wealth
like a poker game. When one person wins, another loses.
When the problems in our systems are solved, we can create wealth, with
plenty to go around.There are so many
books and essays that use eloquent and intellectual words in
lengthy dissertations. They see a PART of the problem. They
demonstrate a level of intelligence. But they only see a small
part of the solution, because they are only using a small part of their
brains. And they are fully capable of using all of their minds if
they apply effective recovery methods.
I don't blame
the people. The people are wonderful. I blame the
many systems that formed their environment. Politics,
education, and psychology are interrelated. Dysfunctional systems
all impact each other.
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