Alas, America currently has a permanent political class which nicely profits from the government’s bounty. This political elite cares only about itself and about the lobbyists in legislatures. Lobbies decide about every issue, and incumbents are unbeatable. Primaries are won by candidates disliked by most of their parties’ members. It can’t be a surprise, then, that the Congress is hiking taxes and spending even though, according to reputable polling, 51% of Americans want an across-the-board tax relief. And in 2008, the GOP got a presidential nominee whom most Republicans disliked, despised and didn’t want. How is all of this possible?

Don’t get me wrong – I believe that there should be a safe distance between the rulers and citizens, but it should not be too big and the rulers should not totally disregard the wishes of their citizens. Nor should they be unaccountable. In this article, I propose electoral reforms that will make politicians accountable to the states and to the people, while preserving America’s federative indirectly democratic electoral system.

Presidential primary rules

Today, many presidential primaries are conducted on an unjust winner-takes-all basis, i.e. whoever obtains the plurality (not necessarily the majority!) of the votes of the party members who live in that state captures all delegates of that state, and the votes of those who voted for other candidates don’t count at all. A case in point was the 2008 Floridian Republican primary, which John McCain “won” – by a plurality of votes (i.e. less than 50%). As a result, he captured all Floridian delegates even though most Floridian Republicans voted for other candidates (i.e. voted against McCain), who, according to them, were better than McCain (and they were right – McCain was the worst among the 2008 Republican candidates). Yet their votes counted for nothing and Floridian GOPers got a presidential nominee that most of them voted against (whereas all other candidates received 0 delegates). In Virginia, McCain received barely 50% of votes cast, but received all of the state’s 60 pledged delegates. Mike Huckabee, who got 40% of votes cast, was awarded 0 delegates. 50% of the votes cast by Virginian Republicans counted for nothing. That’s unfair and undemocratic.

Similarly, the aggregate result of the Republican primary season was that McCain won only a plurality of popular votes, that is, most Republicans voted against him. So it cannot be a surprise that grassroots Republicans didn’t like the results of the primaries nor the Republican nominee – most of them voted against him! The consequence of that was that most Republicans stayed home on Election Day 2008, and the GOP was defeated on that day by a landslide.

For this reason, all presidential primaries of the GOP and the Democratic party should be proportional: that is, the number of delegates a candidate gets in a state should be proportional to the percentage of votes cast for him by the members (i.e. registered supporters) of that party. Every vote will then count.

Term limits

Today, elected officials except presidents, governors and mayors (and some state and city legislators) are de facto elected for lifetime – they’re not constrained by term limits, and they usually remain in office until they die, retire or are arrested. It is extremely difficult for a newcomber to defeat an incumbent, not least because the incumbent has more money than this challenger. Very few incumbent lawmakers ever get toppled by newcomers. So people like Charles Schumer, Pat Leahy and Russ Feingold will remain Senators until they die or retire. It’s abominable – they’re not controlled by anyone. It is therefore necessary to impose term limits on all elected officials; none of them should be elected for more than 3 terms of office. The Declaration of Independence says that if the people don’t like their government, they can elect a new one, yet lawmakers are depriving the American people of that right.

Ending gerrymandering

Because of gerrymandering, 90% of House districts are single-party monopolies, where only one party is competitive. In such districts (e.g. Pelosi’s district), the rival party seldom even bothers to pit any candidates of its own, because it knows it doesn’t stand a chance, so why bother to waste money on it? Thus, those districts are single-party monopolies, just like Communist China is a single-party state. This, in turn, means that Republicans cannot compete with the Dems in San Francisco, Los Angeles or Oregon. Most such single-party districts are Democratic monopolies. Even worse, these districts deprive their citizens of their rights for alternatives. The votes of Republicans who live in San Francisco and Oregon don’t count at all. They could just as well not vote at all and the result of the election would’ve been the same. That is undemocratic and doesn’t serve anyone’s rights well.

Abolishing “open primaries”

In 2008, the GOP allowed Democrats and independents to choose the Party’s presidential nominee. Unsurprisingly, they chose the candidate who was the easiest for them to beat, a candidate who would’ve never beaten any Democratic candidate under any circumstances, a candidate unqualified to govern even a rural store, let alone the US federal government. An open primary is also unconstitutional, because it violates the freedom of association by allowing non-Republicans to choose the party’s nominee. All Republican primaries must become closed primaries. 18 states have already implemented this policy.

Four additional reforms

Finally, there are additional minor reforms that are required: the repeal of the 17^th Amendment (to make Senators elected by, and responsible to, state governments again), the repeal of the McCain-Feingold Act, and a law that will curb the influence of lobbies, which are more influential than ordinary citizens. Moreover, the Congress must make all votings be organized on a roll-call-vote basis, so that every American will know how his or her elected representatives voted – what they voted for, and what they voted against.

I still believe that America is a model democracy superior to other democratic countries. But even she is not flawless. Significant reforms are needed, or politicians will continue to pursue bad policies while ignoring the wishes of the American people. However, America must remain an indirectly democratic country, a constitutional Republic, and politicians should not be afraid of angry mobs.