recursion

Following a theme I've been after for a while, we need to take back our government. Salon has an article today about what the anti-war movement plans to do next: Rage or reason. I talked about translating the anti-war movement into political will the other day.

Jesse at Pandagon links and comments on this article on CommonDreams: How to take back America. "Marching in the streets is important work, but wouldn't we have greater success if we also took control of the United States government?"

He hits a point that I've been making to whoever will listen: The US political system only works with two political parties, because it's winner takes all. I don't think the Framers intended it that way (many of them were pretty hostile to the idea of "factions" to begin with), but that's how our system has turned out. As a voter, you have to gamble on voting for the person who is going to win.

If you're a progresive or you like civil liberties, there's only one party you can realistically support: the Democratic Party. But the Democratic Party is not perfect, and it can't be allowed to take our votes for granted. That's why progressives and civil libertarians have to be active in the Democratic Party.

Part of the Democratic Party platform should be election reform through Instant Runoff Voting. It's mathematically more fair for every voter than our current election system. Progressives and civil libertarians should declare a "truce" with the Democratic Party until this is accomplished. When it is, we can all part ways -- in a real democratic system.