Jonathan T. Soros has this interesting analysis of the causes of partisanship in the United States. He discusses gerrymandering, top-two primaries, and Instant-Runoff voting. Soros is a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and a co-founder of Friends of Democracy, a PAC that attempts to counter the influence of large amounts of money in campaigns. He is a son of George Soros. Here is a piece he and Mark Schmitt wrote earlier this year about the idea that the right to vote should be explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.
He is inconsistent in his arguments. In one he argues for the right to vote, in the other he advocates for partisan coteries to hand pick candidates in partisan primaries. It is the partisan primary system that leads to barriers to party access and independent candidates. He complains that in a Top 2 system that candidates get to express their political beliefs – but it is the identical system that is used in Minneapolis both before and after it switched to Magical Choice Voting.
If a person is an Elector in a State then he/she has THE Right to Vote for USA Reps and Senators.
See also *right to vote* in 14th Amdt, Sec. 2 — too difficult for the usual suspect MORONS to detect.
MOST of the attention about the 14th Amdt in 1866-1868 was about such Section 2 — universal adult citizen male right to vote — sorry females until the later 19th Amdt.
HOWEVER – there should be a *positive* UNIFORM definition of Elector/Voter in ALL of the USA via a const amdt along with P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
Much too difficult also for such above MORONS.
In Texas, do partisan coteries hand pick the candidates in partisan primaries? Are you one of those partisan coteries who handpicks Republican nominees?
On the merits – statist spending in all govts is now about 45 (repeat 45) percent of the GDP
— excluding the fictional *imputed* stuff – such as alleged rents in owner occupied housing units.
i.e. About 30-35 percent of all folks pay NO *NET* taxes.
i.e. More and more of the Tax Slaves are more and more unhappy.
There are 150 House Members.
95 are Republican. Of those 95, only 16 had a credible Democratic opponent (margin of 20% or less). 64 had no Democratic opponent, and another 15 won by 20% or more.
There were 56 contested Republican primaries, where the Republican nominee went on to be elected. 46 of these were in the 79 districts where there was not a credible Democratic candidate. The primary chose who became representative. In the other 33, the representative was elected due to have filed.
There are 55 Democratic representatives. 35 of these had no Republican opponent, and 13 more won by at least 20%.
There were 18 contested Democratic primaries, where the Democrat nominee went on to be elected. 16 of these were in the 48 districts where there was not a credible Republican candidate. The primary chose who became representative. In the other 32, the representative was elected due to have filed.
Overall, 62 representatives were chosen in the primary; 65 essentially had no opposition and simply filing ensured their election; and 23 were chosen by the election.
There were 8 million voters in the election; 1.45 million participants in the Republican primary event; and 0.59 million participants in the Democratic primary event.