In past articles, we have explored Election By Jury (EBJ) - the idea that our political representatives (ie, mayors, governors, senators etc) should be elected by a jury in a courtroom-like setting (see here for more details). Anyone familiar with the sortition movement would notice that this idea has many parallels to a similar idea … Continue reading Election By Jury vs Citizen Assemblies
For years, I labored under the illusion that I was the first to advocate for Election By Jury - at least in the modern era. Imagine my delight when I discovered that H.G. Wells had championed the same idea and made the exact same arguments an entire century before me. To anyone who (understandably) doesn't … Continue reading Election By Jury – by H.G. Wells
look, whatever the {official economic} charts say is a 100% bold faced lie. have you seen the price of a little ceasars pizza? it's jumped nearly 50% in the last 4 years. my salary has not gone up 50% relative to my experiece in the last 4 years. most recently i got a salary cut. … Continue reading To Save Democracy, We Need to Rebuild Trust In Our Institutions
It’s hard to imagine a more incompetent group of people than literally everyone involved in the latest election season. Let’s go down the list. Donald Trump After losing a closely fought election in 2020, the smart thing to do would have been to concede gracefully and plot a comeback for the next election season. If … Continue reading 2024 American Presidential Election – A Comedy of Errors
Using violence to achieve political goals violates the very foundations of any democracy. We should all denounce political violence of all forms. This includes the assassination attempt on Trump in the past week. We have elections for a reason - no one should ever attempt to subvert the electoral process by assassinating a politician they … Continue reading Donald Trump – Both Victim and Perpetrator of Political Violence
Imagine if you were accused of murder, and facing life in prison. Who would you want deciding your fate? A jury of randomly selected citizens, who have spent weeks sitting in a moderated courtroom, listening to all evidence and testimony presented by both sides? Or a public referendum where every single person in your state … Continue reading Election by Jury – Ten Years On
There are protests, and then there are protests. Some protests are peaceful non-disruptive demonstrations. They gather large groups of people in places where they cause minimal disruption to the lives of non-protestors. If they manage to attract lots of people, and if their cause is morally appealing, they succeed in raising awareness and creating political … Continue reading I Shouldn’t Have The Right to Disrupt Your Life
As we watch the shocking videos of Kabul falling to the Taliban, the seeds that led to this disaster become clear. confidential effort on “Lessons Learned” conducted by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an agency created by Congress, painted a devastating picture of corruption, incompetence, lack of motivation and other … Continue reading The Fall of Afghanistan shows the Failure of Democracy
Light red cells indicate elections where the party's representation in Congress is significantly less than its share of the popular vote. Bright green cells indicate elections where the loser of the popular vote ends up winning control of Congress. Senate elections are grouped into 3x blocks, since the entire senate goes up for election over … Continue reading Congress v. Popular Vote
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I never shrink away from controversial opinions and unusual ideas. Not least of which is my belief that we should conduct elections using randomly selected juries in a court of law, not mass voting. When I tell people of this idea, I’m usually met with blank faces … Continue reading Reasons to Replace the Popular Vote
Source I read today a very thought-provoking piece by Yuval Harari, a historian and philosopher. “You can vote but you can’t choose what is true.” A paraphrased summary of his thesis: Elections are awful ways of determining what is true. For that, we need to turn to experts and institutions, not popularity contests. However, elections … Continue reading We Don’t Need Elections to Figure Out What People Want
In recent weeks, we have seen much hand wringing over the role that Social Media, Special Interests, Fake news, and Foreign Governments have played, in determining the outcomes of our political processes. To be sure, there is great merit in all of these accusations. Lobbyists should not be able to veto bills that serve the … Continue reading We Need A Democracy That Cannot Be Hacked
In the past, we had discussed the reasons why democracy is fundamentally flawed, needs to be overhauled, and what its replacement should look like. Admittedly, it was a highly abstract topic. Hence why we had also discussed a simple idea of how democracy could be reformed, to look more like the Jury system, as opposed … Continue reading Reinventing Democracy – The Google Way
Imagine yourself being tried for a sensational crime, one that has gripped the passions of the entire country. It’s Casey Anthony, Duke Lacrosse and George Zimmerman, all rolled into one. Would you like to be tried in a well regulated courtroom, presided over by a judge, your fate in the hands of a jury that … Continue reading Reinventing Democracy – Election by Jury
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch" - Ben Franklin “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams Earlier, I had written about the flaws inherent to democracy and … Continue reading The Difference Between Direct and Representative Democracy
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch" - Ben Franklin “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” - John Adams Today, I'll be making the same argument that the founding fathers did; that … Continue reading It’s Time to Reinvent Democracy
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