U.S. democracy is in existential crisis.
The country already suffers from unrepresentative winner-take-all, single-seat-district legislative elections, a two-party duopoly, partisan gerrymandering, the corrupting influence of big money in politics, and an Electoral College and US Senate that give vastly outsized influence to some voters over others. In the case of the Electoral College, it can also prevent the presidential candidate receiving the most votes from being elected.
On this episode of Toppling the Duopoly, host Shawn Griffiths interviews Dan Falconer, director of the award-winning documentary film, UnRepresented.
2020 was a weird year. Can we all agree on that?
Here’s something weird about 2020 that you may not have noticed amid all the shouting and freaking out: Democrats nominated and successfully fielded a presidential candidate who is the exact same as Donald Trump in a curiously suspicious number of ways.
And they’re not trivial.
Neil faces the reality of death while discussing business succession with Peter Merrick, Income and Capital Enhancement Consultant.
When representatives from the League of Women Voters, RepresentUs, and the Independent Voter Project first met in 2019, political insiders said it would take a miracle to bring an innovative election reform to the City of San Diego that would allow voters to “rank” four candidates in the general election, instead of choosing just one.
January 6, 2021 was — to borrow a line from a famous speech by former president Franklin Roosevelt — a day which will live in infamy. Two days later, Twitter announced that it had permanently banned @realDonaldTrump’s Twitter account due to violations of its “Glorification of Violence” policy. Other social media companies were quick to follow suit.
This is a really interesting discussion with the founder of the new social media app 4B. Amir Sheikh is attempting to create a space for civil disagreement, fact-based debate, and logical discussion in social media. His new app, 4B, helps people engage over controversial topics, but with a goal of finding truth and common ground. In his discussion with Jim, Amir talks about where modern media is going wrong, free speech vs. censorship, and the evolution of the internet.
UnRepresented, an award-winning documentary that reveals the mechanics that drive the cycle of corruption in Congress and the growing movement to unrig the US political process, will soon reach millions of viewers when it airs on local PBS stations across the country.
Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.
The premier of ranked-choice voting in New York City appears to have gone smoothly as exit polling shows most voters found the new system easy to use.