Do you think there is any stomach for deep electoral reform if the Dems win?...
I was just reading about the history of gerrymandering online and I'm wondering, if the Dems do take back control in the next federal election, do you believe there is any stomach for serious electoral reform?
One thing that the whole Trump debacle has shown us is patently obviously IMHO is that the electoral process in the US is broken. I'm not arguing it's much better here in Canada, we have our own issues too. Indeed many democratic countries struggle with what it means to have the most fair electoral system. But I would argue that there are some systems that are demonstrably better at producing results that actually represent the will of the majority. One key struggle of course is simply getting out the vote and that is a separate argument in some ways. Although not entirely. I think more people would vote if they didn't feel disaffected and that their vote counted.
At any rate practices like gerrymandering highlight the absurdity of the current system in countries that allow for it IMO. Any system that allows the ruling party to pick and choose its voters isn't very democratic almost by definition. And then in the US you have strange antiquated concepts like the electoral college which, while technically designed originally to prevent someone like Trump from being elected actually ended up doing the opposite in this case from what I understand.
All this being said changing a countries electoral system is always a herculean task. There are always so many vested interests in keeping the status quo. A huge amount of money and power is at stake. But nothing can change if we don't make the effort. At some point a party has to run on a platform of electoral reform or nothing will change.
Do you feel this will ever happen in the US?
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