De-Polarizing US elections: Two New Ideas

 

In his recent book Forward, former presidential and New York majoral candidate Andrew M. Yang puts forward two promising and concrete ideas: (1) open primaries and (2) ranked-choice voting.

Yang argues that these two mechanisms might correct the current process of polarization by creating positive stimulus for candidates to respond to the 51-61 percent of the electorate that has moderate, pragmatic views instead of those who espouse fringe Far Right or Far Left, unrealistic and dogmatic positions.

Both mechanisms have been proven in Alaska, allowing an anti-Trump Republican moderate such as Senator Lisa Murkowski to resist and survive reelection.

Ranked-choice elections in New York also kept in check the Far Left candidacies that brought before the extreme and disastrous tenure of Bill de Blasio.

Food for thought. 

I, for one, will read Yang’s book in the hope that moderation and common sense can find a way back to where they should be since they represent a steady majority of the American electorate.