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ideological culture partisanship

The False Binary

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Characterizing herself as a “moderate with a brain,” Bridget Phetasy writes that things have gotten so bad that now “every vote is considered a statement on your personal identity and worth.” Her article in Spectator USA, “The battle cry of the politically homeless,” paints a bleak picture.

“Your value, who you are, what kind of world you want, whether or not you’re a good person or an evil person … it all boils down to which lever you pull. Damn your reasons. Vote for the ‘right’ person, or else you are a fascist, or a racist, or a globalist, or a communist.”

Ms. Phetasy expresses fatigue at “being afraid to voice my own opinions, of knowing how saying the wrong thing at a barbecue while someone is filming on their iPhone could result in a nationwide clarion call for my head on a pike.”

I, however, feel not one whit of a compulsion to cave to what Phetasy says is the “totalitarian-​like” demand of the two parties for “devotion to their ideology.”

How did I become so blessed?

I know that Trumpians have almost no way to rationally defend their major positions — protectionism being the tippy-​top of an Everest of an iceberg. Meanwhile, the far left is worse, flushing the old wine of socialism through the new-​but-​leaky bottles of racist (“anti-​racist”) resentment.

Can we really fear such intellectual paper tigers?

There is a way out: Ranked choice voting. Witless partisanship rests on the A/​not‑A (=B/​not‑B) duality rut of the two-​party system, into which I have never purchased admission. None of us are required to — and won’t be tempted to once our absurd electoral system is swapped for one not programmed to create false binaries.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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2 replies on “The False Binary”

Ranked Choice Voting should be used in the Electoral College. If the partisan Electors still followed tradition and voted straight-​ticket for their Party, no visible result would happen. The same results, no boat-rocking.
Yet, most importantly, the door would be open to see what we get on the Electors’ 2nd and 3rd choice lists? If a 3‑party split, it stays in the Electoral College until the 2nd or 3rd Round of counting is completed. (Then to the H.R. if necessary by 12-​Amendment rule).

Paul… Yes we can fear the paper tigers because we elected them and gave them undeserved power.. It is also a mistake to imply that all major positions of the trump administration, are indefensible, when so many of the American people are obviously quite willing to defend them…

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