The older I get the more elections I see. With each election I become more and more aware of the fundamental flaws in our political system. People often equate democracy with majority rule. There is a problem with this equation and there are problems with majority rule. The problem with the equation is that democracy is actually supposed to be a system that reflects the will of the people. The problem with majority rule is that it does not reflect the will of the people.
Take for example the Republican and Democratic parties. Neither party actually makes up a majority. There are more non-republicans than republicans and there are more non-democrats than democrats. When either party is running the country it is not the majorities rule, it is in fact the rule of the largest minority. What is also true is that the majority is actually not being represented at all because of the way the party is composed.
Let me digress for a moment and consider what a political party is. A political party is a collection of differing interest groups that do not conflict with each other. For example the Republican party is composed of pro-life interests, pro-gun interests, and pro-business interests just to name a few. While there are some people that can fully agree with all of the policies of the Republican party it is more so the case that people who vote republican are either single issue voters or simply agree more with them than they do with the Democrats.
What this means is that even the options we are presented with are problematic. This is why most people don't vote because they don't feel like any party really represents their interests. So, it is the case that most of the time a majority of people actually do not even vote. The will of the majority of people is not even being expressed in the first place. And the will of the rest of the people who is not a majority is being called the majority when it itself isn't even a majority of the minority.
What we ultimately end up with is a minority of a minority that runs the country. The vast number of people are either not represented at all or are not having any say in what goes on. The will of the people is far from expressed and it is no majority rule.
A further problem with the "majority rule" as it is called goes back to how people vote. If people are voting for single issues or only a handful of issues then the result turns out to be what may properly be described as a train wreck. Let's say for example there are only two options to chose from, which is democrat or republican. If a person votes on a single issue and ignores all the rest then it will play out like this: John Doe votes republican because he is pro-life. There happens to be a lot of pro-lifers so the republican gets elected. John Doe gets what he wants as far as that interest is concerned but he has essentially invited in the mafia to take care of his business. The Republican party does not stop at pro-life issues, they go on to progress all the other interest groups that compose the party. This may become quite problematic for John Doe. Say for example the Republican party is also composed of a group interested in international interventionism. This interest ends up leading to a war in which countless lives are lost. It seems to me that war is not something that a pro-life person would really want.
There is something missing from this picture. There is no real compromise. These interest groups get together and the only compromise is that they will aid each other in getting what each other wants. Real compromise involves altering what two parties want in order to reach a middle ground. The interests that make up the party in power get what they want while the other party gets nothing. The next election comes and we see a full reversal. The result is a perpetual game of tug-o-war where some people only get what they want for a little while and then get the opposite later on.
This form of democracy may properly be called the rule of ignorance and amnesia. People vote without any consideration of history and without any consideration for the full implications of what they are voting for. Don't get me wrong. I love America and democracy. That is why I am so passionate about this. Democracy itself is not the problem. The problem is in how distorted it has become. A serious change is needed. We cannot simply lump interests together, call it a political party, and hope that everything works out. If the majority of people are not being represented than this is not a democracy.
The issue is not with non-voters, the issue is with the options. Unless the options exist for people to chose from then people cannot be expected to vote for the lesser of two evils. The parties need to be torn asunder and exposed for what they really are, interest groups masked as a unified party.
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