Politics

 

Politician

I'm a political man and I practice what I preach.
I'm a political man and I practice what I preach.
So don't deny me baby, not while you're in my reach

Do Politics have to be so Nasty?

Political Parties, factions, were not desired and thus not anticipated by the US Constitution. This is why one of the earliest crisis of the nation was the Presidential Election of 1800.  The problem is that in a single representative per district election system, which is a difference between the US and Europe,  two political parties are inevitable according to, Duverger’s Law.  The problem is that according to Game Theory, a system with only two players will devolve into rewarding nasty behavior.  It is only when there are at least three players that Nice behavior is an optimal behavior.         
https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2021/05/tough-but-fair-beats-always-being-nasty.html

So what is the solution?  IMHO, Sarah Palin’s recent election loss in Alaska has shown the way, Ranked Choice Voting. https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2022/09/ranked-choice-voting.html .There have to be at least three candidates for Ranked Choice Voting to be meaningful.  So how do you get at least three candidates in a two party system.  I would propose that each ballot in an election includes the party primary winner and the party endorsed candidate.  Often they would not be the same, in which case even when there are only two parties there may be as many as four candidates.

There are already effectively three  parties in the United States: Democrat, Republican AND Independent/Undeclared.  Having only candidates from two parties when there are effectively three parties is IMHO the problem why the US is in its current state.  When independent/third parties candidates run, they often decide the result of the election and it is exactly opposite of what the independents intended.  If there are two candidates from each party, then independents can vote for someone, instead of against someone.