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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.
Some people have proposed the concept of proportional representation (http://www.fairvote.org/pr/) 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.
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.