By Mark Bauer
There’s a popular New York Time’s quiz circulating around social media that seeks to find which of 6 hypothetical political parties you would belong to if America wasn’t ruled by a two-party duopoly.
Maybe you’ve seen it passed around, or heck, maybe you’ve taken the quiz yourself. It’s a fascinating experiment to get readers to think outside the existing polarity.
From the story:
America’s two-party system is broken. Democrats and Republicans are locked in an increasingly destructive partisan struggle that has produced gridlock and stagnation on too many critical issues — most urgently, the pandemic and climate change.
There is no reasonable or timely way to fix this broken system. But there is an alternative: more parties.
This is a big tenet of ranked choice voting, the belief that the two-party system contributes to much of the political dysfunction experienced in America. Without utilizing a mechanism like ranked choice voting during the electoral process, though, a multi-party system isn’t tenable.
So if you took the quiz and became excited about the prospect of finding a group of likeminded individuals to rally around candidates that believe more like you do, then the next step might involve reading up on electoral reforms like ranked choice voting to see if that’s something you could get behind. If enough folks believe it a worthwhile cause, then a six party America might not look like such a pipe dream after all.
Mark Bauer is a producer, entrepreneur, day trader and former Independent candidate for Congress in Texas. Previously he spent 10 years as a legal journalist covering the legal market in Texas and regulatory issues in Washington DC.
Mark’s primary interests involve using content and storytelling to help different groups of people better understand one another.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Rank the Vote, its members, supporters, funders, or affiliates.
