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BuckeyeShadow said:
Officially ban all political parties and require political candidates to run as independents in non-partisan elections. You instantly obliterate the worthless left-right, liberal-conservative dichotomy and the acrimonious, ineffectual political-ideological logjam that has rendered the US a global laughingstock for being unable to adequately address its problems and crises. This would also force people to actually THINK and examine candidates for their views, interests, qualifications and objectives as opposed to relying upon simply being able to look for the "Democrat" or "Republican" next to candidates' names. The result would be a meritocracy in which qualified and competent individuals more often than not emerge as political representatives.Non-partisan elections are actually already in place for municipal judges and school board members. Some small towns also have non-partisan elections for city council and mayor. No one misses smarmy party politics and the endless bickering between political labels and ideological constructs in these places.
Non-partisan elections would also render gerrymandering meaningless with no parties standing to fight and bicker over district lines. Perhaps we could even vote for multiple candidates within one district and choose several to represent the area on city council, within the state legislature, etc.
Would this really be a stretch to do at a state and national level? Likely not, but I'm sure the Ds and Rs would raise a huge ruckus about anything that would put them out of business and force them to stand on something other than vapid nostrums while whoring themselves out to the highest bidding corporate interest. All the more reason to do it.
This will never happen and really is a non-starter. To even say that the Republicans and Democrats would raise a huge ruckus is a vast understatement. Not only that, corporations and the wealthy will be against it as it takes away their ability to exert power via their wealthy and lobbying.
Personally I favor a multi party system, which would be the result of one of your proposals (multi-vote, multi-winner elections), but it's the aforementioned reasons that this will never happen either.
The only way any of this could realistically be done is by a constitutional amendment by referendum, which would almost certainly never pass given the entrenched nature of power the politicos have in this country and their sway over an exceedingly passive population.
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