The Problem is Incumbents

Marc Panepinto announced today that he would not be seeking reelection when his term expires. The reasons he gave are what he hopes the media and people buy into and believe.

They are not what caught my ear.

It was another comment - “You can't win unless you are an incumbent” or “You can't beat an incumbent” or something to that effect. If I had a better data plan for Internet service, I would watch the video on-line and get an exact quote. Maybe tomorrow during lunch or coffee break.

He just described a major problem in not just New York but in American democracy as a whole.

Outsiders can't get in. It is very difficult for a person that is not a Democrat or Republican (the two major capitalist parties) to get into power. (Even the two minor capitalist parties – the Libertarian and Constitution parties – have a hard time getting elected. Though they have an easier time, I'm sure than Greens, socialists, and communists.)

Part of the reason is money. Unless you have a very powerful grass roots organization, money will determine the winner. And capitalists have plenty of that to spread around. Though I am reminded of the cartoon of two rich tycoons (both white and male) with the caption “I'm glad there are only two parties. I don't think I could afford three.”

And that's the sad state of American democracy.

And that's probably why people are not turning out to vote. In 2014 only 36% of the eligible voters turned out to vote. Aside from President Obama's candidacy in 2008 and 2012, voter turnout is usually around 50% or less.

So, how do we solve this crisis?

And the answer lies in European, Canadian, and South & Central American democracies.

The answer is proportional representation.

Many parties can run, however they only receive representation if they receive a minimum percentage, usually 5%, of the vote. Then they receive that percent of the representatives.

Under those rules, there are more than two parties in government and there is usually some horse trading that goes on on order to get legislation passed. And the power of the minor parties is respected because they can make or break a coalition.

Then again, they are the voice of a segment of the population and they can make for some interesting alliances. I've seen socialist and Libertarian minded students argue with Republican students over drug laws, gay marriage, and other issues that they believe that the state is denying the rights of people on. Also foreign policy. One of the best spoken students against US interventionism and militarism happened to be a Libertarian. We knew where we agreed and that we could have a good discussion on those issues. Economics was a different story, though we did agree that the government should not have bailed out Wall Street and the the banksters should have had to face up to the shareholders and depositors.

So, incumbency is the problem and a major reason why nothing gets done in Albany or Washington DC.

The solution is democracy.

More choices means more voices.

Which is the exact opposite of what the 1% want.