Chris Hedges: "In this year’s presidential election I will vote for a third-party candidate"

[JackRiddler]

142. Actually, the problem is with the lack of representation.

Canada, the US and UK all suffer from electing winners, rather than representatives. Whoever gets the most votes, even a minority, gets to be the exclusive holder of an office. 49 percent (or more, given splits) can go screw themselves. They have no representatives. By comparison, in Germany (very stable and prosperous country, I hear), representation is based on actual share of the vote, so that if a party clears the minimum hurdle (5 percent of the vote) they get a representation proportional to their vote share. Eight percent means 8 percent, 41 percent means 41 percent (and not, as in Britain, a 2/3 majority!). Disparate elements of society are (goodness gracious) forced to form coalitions and synthesize solutions that are amenable to more than one party. It's called "proportional representation," but the truth is, it's the only system that merits the name of representative at all. Again: We don't elect representatives, we elect winners who get to do what they want.