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Democracy Upgrade: Next Level Representation
Like everything else, Democracy must evolve to survive. No living thing or institution can remain static while the world changes around.
The United States has had a long-standing formula for it’s elected Democracy:
- 100 Senators—2 for each state (forced over and under-representation)
- 435 Representatives—1 for each district (closer to true representation but subject to unfair districting)
- 1 President—made weird by Electoral College but generally reflects popular will
Recently, we have been made more aware of the pitfalls of gaming the system, undue divisiveness, huge campaign expenditures, local gerrymandering, voting method discrepancies (different methods of voting and counting) and exaggerated regional differences.
These regional differences are historically based no doubt and they do shift over time but they are unnaturally aggravating our cohesiveness and preventing us from acting more rationally as a United nation and they are not sufficiently addressed by our current system. It’s important that we take some time to consider new ways of shoring up democracy that don’t take away from what people are used to but enhances it. Many have already thought that with our population growth the Congress hasn’t really kept up and has remained at 535 for too long. Let’s add seven more!
