Partisanship and Division cause corruption and problems in our current government. These problems consist of representation, bias, and bad political habits. How can we fix these problems? and what will the fixes change?
The main example of a flaw in public representation is how candidates get their money. With the wealthy having more money to spend, some choose to serve as a funder for political candidates. Many of them fund large amounts of money to political parties or specific candidates. In many cases, we don't get to see many candidates because they don't make it to the general election because of the limited funding they are given. This gives the wealthy a power in government meanwhile this power is simply inaccessible to lots of the population. With the United States having a population of 311 million, only about 144 thousand give candidates funding. With that being close to .05% of the population, it's obvious that the other .95% is not represented ("We the People".)
So how can we control or increase the amount of funding and representation?
Instead of having a bunch of large funders who donate very large quantities, the solution is to limit the amount of money that can be given, therefor allowing the smaller donors to have just as much of an impact as the large. With smaller donors realizing they have more representation, that will cause a reaction of even more donating as well. Not only will it make the smaller donors and more of the population happier, but it will also make elections better because the opinion of the people is being better represented. With three already happily cooperating with this plan, the participation of our country as a whole would be beneficial.
Here is an image showing the percentages of current 2020 funding.
in the graph you can see that smaller funding is having more of an impact
however the large funders still hold 34.4% of the donations/representation.
As mentioned above, representation is not the only problem currently. Partisanship is another issue that impacts our government. Partisanship is easily replaceable with Data and Statistics. Instead of political candidates or parties disagreeing automatically, or being bias towards one another, facts and data will help us resolve our problems logically instead of emotionally. This will provide our people with faster and more fair/better actions and decisions from the government.
Not only would this help us make better decisions, but it would also destroy some division in our society. With less partisanship, less bias and argument would occur between democrats and republicans. This idea was constructed by G.T. Bynum of Tulsa Oklahoma. He found that when his team used data and statistics in the election, that it had more of an impact than his opponent's philosophical attacks. Once he was elected, G.T. Bynum and his elected officials continued to use the data and statistics method. This showed that the method made better decisions and the Town of Tulsa was a growing economical town but also growing in population because of the economic attraction ("A Republican.")
The main example of a flaw in public representation is how candidates get their money. With the wealthy having more money to spend, some choose to serve as a funder for political candidates. Many of them fund large amounts of money to political parties or specific candidates. In many cases, we don't get to see many candidates because they don't make it to the general election because of the limited funding they are given. This gives the wealthy a power in government meanwhile this power is simply inaccessible to lots of the population. With the United States having a population of 311 million, only about 144 thousand give candidates funding. With that being close to .05% of the population, it's obvious that the other .95% is not represented ("We the People".)
So how can we control or increase the amount of funding and representation?
Instead of having a bunch of large funders who donate very large quantities, the solution is to limit the amount of money that can be given, therefor allowing the smaller donors to have just as much of an impact as the large. With smaller donors realizing they have more representation, that will cause a reaction of even more donating as well. Not only will it make the smaller donors and more of the population happier, but it will also make elections better because the opinion of the people is being better represented. With three already happily cooperating with this plan, the participation of our country as a whole would be beneficial.
Here is an image showing the percentages of current 2020 funding.
in the graph you can see that smaller funding is having more of an impact
however the large funders still hold 34.4% of the donations/representation.
As mentioned above, representation is not the only problem currently. Partisanship is another issue that impacts our government. Partisanship is easily replaceable with Data and Statistics. Instead of political candidates or parties disagreeing automatically, or being bias towards one another, facts and data will help us resolve our problems logically instead of emotionally. This will provide our people with faster and more fair/better actions and decisions from the government.
Not only would this help us make better decisions, but it would also destroy some division in our society. With less partisanship, less bias and argument would occur between democrats and republicans. This idea was constructed by G.T. Bynum of Tulsa Oklahoma. He found that when his team used data and statistics in the election, that it had more of an impact than his opponent's philosophical attacks. Once he was elected, G.T. Bynum and his elected officials continued to use the data and statistics method. This showed that the method made better decisions and the Town of Tulsa was a growing economical town but also growing in population because of the economic attraction ("A Republican.")
Works Cited
A Republican Mayor's Plan. Ted Talk, www.ted.com/talks/g_t_bynum_a_republican_mayor_s_plan_to_replace_partisanship_with_policy.
We the people, and the republic we must claim. Ted Talk, www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim#t-1064788.
"With three already happily cooperating with this plan, the participation of our country as a whole would be beneficial." What is the "three" you are referencing? Three people? Three states?
ReplyDeleteYou also bring up using data as part of a political campaign, as it worked for the mayor in the TED Talk. Do you think such a strategy would be successful for all political candidates?
Very eye opening to me. I did not understand this topic before reading about it. What are your thoughts on G.T. Bynum's solution?
ReplyDelete