Congratulations! It’s a Democracy!

The Cold, Cruel World!

Now, if you are interested in the foundations of this project, I’d like to point you first, not to the history, but to the founding principles. We start with a diagnosis of the flaws in the current system, and we come up with three doozies:

• The Big Disconnect: where voters do not feel like the authors of their own institutions of self-government,
• The Underrepresentation Problem: where far too many voters are represented by a single member of congress,
• The Campaign Problem: which fuels nasty politics and opens us up to control through patronage, money, and power.

Living the Dream

So, let’s dream of a system that solves these problems. Let’s start by using a great trick known to people who are good at problem solving. Let’s imagine we had a solution. What would it look like?

1. It would be a system that connected every voter to the final vote:
   • Every voter who chose to vote on a bill would have an equal vote, and
   • The House rep would cast their vote with the will of the majority.
2. It would be a system where every voter would be represented by:
   • Someone they know personally who is also,
   • Someone with a manageable number of voters to serve–less than a dozen.
3. Candidates would win office without fundraising or campaigning,
   • They would be ‘put forward’ by the voters in a merit-based process,
   • They would not need to ‘bend the knee’ to a political party.

A nice dream, eh? But what if it could actually be done?

A Dream Grounded in Reality

It won’t do to simply say, “Anything would be possible if the children of the world would all join together in song!” Yes, anything could be possible if people could be relied upon to do things they would never do!

When it comes to public policy, people will disagree–sometimes quite vehemently–as to the best path forward. People will seek out others who think like they do–and dislike those who don’t. Some people are better at rhetoric and the art of persuasion. Some people hold back. Some people don’t care.

So, our system needs to keep its feet on the ground. It needs to accommodate human beings as they are, not as we would wish them to be. Our system can’t be based on the premise that people must change in some fundamental way in order for the system to work.

Democracy, Straight-Up! A Dream Come True?

Well, that’s going too far! This is democracy we are talking about–people dealing with other people. It’ll never be ‘dreamy.’ But it does not need to be a nightmare!

Through The ‘Claim Your Seat’ Voting, the system described above is made possible. And even if it isn’t a dream come true…

Go Ahead and Feel Good About It Anyway!

Let’s take a moment to savor the wonderful sense of relief that comes from finally solving a long-standing problem. Or a whole slew of them! The Straight-Up System will–

• Remove Money from Elections
• Solve the Under-representation Problem
• Right-size Government spending
• Margin alize the Two Party System
• Eliminate Gerrymandering
• Get Rid of Sleazy and Corrupt Politicians
• Mitigate the Tyranny of the Majority
• Cure Information Overload

And, more than anything, it will greatly enhance the effectiveness of your personal ‘pursuit of happiness.’ That’s your happiness we are talking about here. Not just making the world a better place. Making your world a better place.

You’re welcome!

Learn more: go to DemocracyStraightUp.Org