The Problem
This past week, the debate between President Biden and Former President Trump showed clearly that neither of the top two contenders for the next term is fit for the job.
Ezra Klein expressed well in a post-debate analysis how high the stakes are, and how the Democrat Party has gotten into this hole by ignoring voter sentiment:
But if the fate of American democracy is hinging on this election, as Democrats are always telling me it is, and is I think there is a chance that it is, then you should do everything you can to win it. Not doing anything from here, because it’s uncomfortable, and maybe doing something else might not work either. I don’t really know what to say about it… At some point Democrats have to decide if they want to try to win this election, or it is simply too uncomfortable for them to do anything but be on this train as it derails. But right now, it feels to me like the train is derailing.
Ezra Klein Show (minute 28:39)
The voters have been telling Democrats this whole time that Joe Biden is too old. It has been true in every single poll anybody has run at any time. And Democrats keep telling the voters they’re wrong. And you just can’t do this when they can see it. You can’t do it when it’s visible.
Ezra Klein Show (minute 29:38)
An even more poignant observation was made by Jon Stewart at the end of his Debate Analysis on The Daily Show:
Both of these men should be using performance-enhancing drugs… And by way, if those drugs don’t exist, if there aren’t actually performance enhancing drugs for these candidates, then I could sure fucking use some recreational ones right now. Because this. cannot be. real life! It just can’t! Fuck. We’re America!
Jon Stewart’s Debate Analysis: Trump’s Blatant Lies and Biden’s Senior Moments
Clearly, something is broken in our electoral system if this is the “choice” given to voters.
The Solution
The root of the problem is the electoral process. In other spheres of society, bad choices present an opportunity for a new alternative to emerge. In an industry with firms that all provide poor service, a new firm should enter the industry and try to provide a better service. If products in a market are not meeting the needs of customers, another company can come along and launch a new product to give those customers a better-value alternative. In cases when barriers to entry are high, competition policy and anti-trust law are used to lower barriers to entry and encourage proper functioning of a market.
In the political sphere, however, we have created a system with immense barriers to entry by design. Although a new candidate could emerge, that candidate would spoil the election by spitting the Biden vote and delivering an easy victory to Trump. Thus, having more options is a bad thing in the current system. But that means we need to change the current system.
Ranked choice voting with open primaries would deliver on that goal. If we had RCV, a new candidate would almost certainly enter the race after seeing the debate performance this week. Voters unhappy with the two current options could vote for the new entrant to the race, but then also express their second-choice option on the ballot in order to avoid spoiling the election. In this new system, more choice would be a welcome and positive feature!
Reddit user r/TaikoNerd made a pro-FairVote meme after seeing the debate, recognizing that the debate was almost the best advertisement anyone could have made for the importance of changing the electoral process. So many people saw that debate and wondered how we could be in such a bad political situation, and what alternative approach could give voters better options.
FairVote is one of the organizations that is working toward exactly these types of policy changes.
