First Past The Post

Today, I will cover what I believe to be that absolute worst problem plaguing American politics today - our method of determining the winners of an election.

But first, there's something you should all do that will only take a few minutes. Go here: Political Compass. Take the test. (It is perhaps not the best test, but it is here largely to make a point, not to be accurate.) Take a look at your results, then take a look at the pages related to politics in the United States. Then, take a look at the pages related to politics in different nations, especially those in Europe.

This should open your eyes to something - in America, all our mainstream politicians have very similar views. Democrats and Republicans largely inhabit the same fourth of the upper-right quadrant of the overall spectrum of political beliefs as displayed by the compass.

Now, you might wonder why this is a problem. I'll tell you why: while this may represent the 'average' political belief of the typical American, a large minority of people in America are left without any candidate that is a even remotely accurate representation of the political, economics, and social viewpoints that they hold.

The reason for this is, obviously, that we only have two parties. A party can only hold to a single, unified political platform, and there being only two parties severely limits the possibility of representation. It does, in fact, limit you to two choices.

It might not immediately be obvious why the two choices would automatically be incredibly similar, or why it is that we have only two parties. I'm not going to go into the reasons behind it, because there is a much more entertaining individual who has already done so in a very accurate way, right over here.

After watching the video (or not), it should seem fairly reasonable that the first past the post voting system described there naturally tends towards two parties and a large minority or, even, majority of disenfranchised voters.

(While he doesn't go into it, there is an actual mathematical proof that shows first past the post systems trend towards two parties over time, with the assumption of rational voters and candidates. I can't find a good display of it on the Internet, and it is rather in-depth, but if you want me to into it in the comments section, I certainly can.)

Our system in America is incredibly similar to straight first past the post voting. For the sake of simplicity, we can essentially assume that it is.

In addition to the major problems when it comes to accurately representing the wishes of the population, first past the post voting has another major problem - because there is only room for two parties, the two parties will both be centrist, and will be very likely to agree with one another on many issues. This is a problem because, as shown, at the very least a large minority of voters disagree with the major parties on many issues.

This means that many voters will not only be largely disinterested in the voting process itself, and have no real representation in government, they will also be subjected to legislation that they do not agree with, regardless of whether or not the majority of voters agree or disagree with the legislation itself.

So, what are the alternatives? They're all over, but I believe the best to be a proportional voting system, akin to what is instituted in places such as the United Kingdom. These systems encourage several things - a large number of diverse parties, more accurate representation of voters in government, and more compromise and cooperation between political parties in an attempt to move legislation forward.

Anyways. I'm sure you all have your own opinions, but I'd like to stress that, whatever they are, the current voting system in America is probably preventing you from finding candidates that you agree with on a majority of issues. Obviously there are plenty of people who have no problems with the status quo, as they are well represented by the two current parties, but there are also many, many voters who are not represented in any way by the current American government.

For those of you who are interested, my results from the political compass can be seen here. I'd like to stress that I'm not really in that particular area for every issue, I just hold a great number of extreme and moderate beliefs that average out to about there.

As per usual, thanks for reading, and I hoped you learned a little something. Maybe you'll even do something about it. I know I have, and will continue to do so.