Smallest Victories | Three Things Thursday
Sometimes there are big victories: a court battle won, an initiative passed, a law changed.
Those happen, on occasion.
More often, there are smaller victories: a meeting agreed to, language approved, signatures gathered.
Most often are the smallest victories: more voters educated. It’s less tangible than the others, but just as sweet. The smallest victories are eventually what powers the biggest ones.
This week was a week of smallest victories.
Here are some sweet things.
Everyone knows: if you can’t have a basketball tournament, election reform is the next best thing. Luckily, a bipartisan group of leaders in Wisconsin are looking to bring you exactly that with Final Five Voting, a combination of election reforms designed to create a more representative election.
With Final Five Voting, citizens vote in a nonpartisan primary election, and the top five finishers go into the general election. In the general election, voters rank their candidates using ranked choice voting. The result: a more functional and cooperative Congress.
“This new approach will change the nature of our elections, and in turn, create a new era of collaboration and results in Congress,” argues authors state senator Dale Kooyeng (R) and assemblyman Daniel Riemer (D). “Final-Five Voting does not require politicians or voters to abandon their ideological views — or their parties (we’ll proudly remain members of ours) — but it does encourage reaching across the aisle to solve big problems in a sustainable, consensus-building, bipartisan fashion.”
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that our system isn’t necessarily operating on all cylinders. While some may blame a particular political party, 110 bipartisan leaders, past and present, want you to blame something much larger: the system itself.
The truth is, Congress is outdated. The systems, procedures, and protocols represent a bygone era. To govern a 21st century America, America needs a 21st century congress. Without it, the country will squander opportunity while allowing challenges to mount. Congress has become too cumbersome, and as a result, is being cast aside as quick action is rewarded. A quote to think about:
“If this pandemic has taught us anything about our political system, it’s that a robust and resilient Congress — one that operates as the first branch of government — is essential to the safety and security of our republic and all its citizens."
Deputy Director for Reform & Partnerships Tyler Fisher fired up the ol’ blog this week to synthesize a new study by More in Common that analyzes voter sentiment during coronavirus. The findings: Americans are feeling more unified than they were two years ago.
“While fear of the pandemic is widespread, there remains a perception of increasing unity across the electorate,” Tyler writes. “Amongst a number of key indicators, compared to two years ago, many more Americans feel unified, that they can count on one another, and that we’re all in this together.”