The 3 pillars of the duopoly

After another painful presidential election when voters were given a choice between two shades of the same oligarchy, it's time to revisit what reforms need to happen to dismantle the duopoly and give voters more choices at the polls and more possibilities for our system to better represent its citizens.

After looking through my prior posts regarding softball and hardball solutions, these 3 reforms I believe are the key ones that need to happen:

1. Declare that money is not speech and that corporations are not people. 
This is definitely a hardball solution as it will require amending the constitution. Thankfully, there is already a national, grass-roots organization working on this very idea. Move to Amend is doing a great job laying the groundwork that will be needed to pass an amendment because the only way it will happen is if ordinary people organize to overwhelm the oligarchy.

2. Create choice at the ballot box now
No 2 is between a hardball and softball solution in that it won't require an amendment to the constitution, but will require changes at the state level widespread enough to make a difference. There are many ways to create more choice at the ballot box now, but in my opinion, the quickest and most straight-forward is to push for ranked-choice voting, also called instant runoff voting. I'll let the experts at FairVote explain the concept. There is already movement on this issue as Maine just passed this very reform last month. One state down, 49 to go.

Some may point out that changing the electoral college should be the focus. Yes, changing the EC would create a better sense of fairness, especially as last month was the second election in recent times where the losing candidate won the popular vote. To me, changing the EC is just putting lipstick on the pig and our energy should be more focused on creating choice at the state level and that will percolate up to the EC in due time.

3. Open up ballot access for the long term
This last solution is a softball in that changes to ballot access are controlled through a myriad of state and local laws that can be changed on a local level, chipping away at the duopoly in the process. The high number of signatures required to be put on the ballot, the requirements of having a certain percentage of the vote in the previous cycle to be put automatically on the ballot for the next cycle, and other restrictions need to be fundamentally reformed or simply eliminated to open up the system to alternative parties. Signs of these reforms are sporadic at best and this one will take more time than the first 2 pillars to educate and organize.

The take home message is that stuff is already happening on knocking down these 3 core pillars of the duopoly and it re-energizes me to get back into the fight in the new year.