In this New York Times piece, Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate, writes about the issues he sees with a bipartisan America and one possible solution. A two party system creates a strict divide between Americans; politics has become Democrats versus Republicans, as opposed to two parties working together to represent different ideas of the people. In election years like this one, voters are faced with a choice that many views as choosing between the lesser of two evils. This stark divide has disincentivized many from voting in the election period. Speaking for myself, I plan on voting despite not adoring either candidate. However, I see the situation and have decided to vote with my conscious as best as I can, given the circumstances.
Dean discusses how many people are voting independent because they are unhappy with the main party choices of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. However one could argue that because the bipartisan system is so ingrained into our political culture, that voting outside of it is wasting your vote. In order to diminish this issue, Dean proposes we adopt ranked choice voting. Currently, we pick the candidate we like the most, easy peasy but not necessarily the best idea. Ranked choice voting would mean instead of choosing one candidate, voters would rank the candidates from most to least favorable. The candidate with the highest sum total would then go on to be elected. For example, say one wanted to vote for Clinton and there’s no way in hell they wanted to vote for Trump. They could rank Clinton highest, then Gary Johnson, then Jill Stein, and lastly Trump. Not only would Clinton get the most “points” but Trump would get the least; more importantly Johnson and Stein, who are favored over Trump in the situation, are also given a chance to be more competitive.
Some countries and states have already implemented ranked choice voting. Dean proposes, and I agree, that implementing ranked choice voting on a local and state level will show congress its value. Potentially in elections to come we won’t be faced with as polarizing a decision as we will be in November.
RE: Howard Dean, How to Move Beyond the Two-Party System, The New York Times
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