If someone won $500,000,000 in the lottery, what would be the most effective way to spend it to change the political situation in America?

Edit: Asking for a friend.

  • Liz@midwest.socialEnglish
    0·
    11 months ago

    The fundamental cause of America’s problem is the two-party system. If you want to get rid of that you have to switch to a proportional representation system. I would suggest working at the local or state level. I do not know of any organization working on this issue. You would likely have to start one yourself or hire someone else to do so.

    If you’re genuinely going to do it, any suggestion I make here about specifics would be pointless, as you should do significant research before deciding on what flavor of proportional representation to push and where. But, the key is to adopt a system known for accurate and small party representation. If a party gets enough votes to win a single seat, they should be awarded a single seat. If they get a third of the votes, they should get a third of the seats.

    Let me know if you want to talk specifics.

    • HollandJim@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 months ago

      I used to say this too, but living in a multiparty country for 20+ years now (NL) I don’t see it as an advantage when you need to govern so large a country. It sounds like an easy solution until you try to get agricultural and city people to agree, and then now try multiplying it by 50.

      Unfortunately, a two-party system will likely work best as you’ll need a common consensus to move the country in a single direction.

      • nucleative@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        11 months ago

        Not sure why the downvotes on OP, it’s a reasoned opinion and worthy of discussion.

        I think you’re saying that if you have too many political parties then the whole system gets watered down so much that nothing happens and the direction of the country can change at any time because there’s no unified agenda. Isn’t there a system to elect a leader who’d set the agenda and coordinate?

        • HollandJim@lemmy.world
          0·
          11 months ago

          One would hope that through conversation we’d have more reasoned information but it appears camping on a platform is where people go to “win”.

          We’ve dozens of parties trying to win to form a coalition, so sheer numbers don’t help. You can easily argue that our politics have grown stale and ineffective here in the recent years, and there’s a growing need for change.

          For instance we’ve already had a few elections where a farmers collective party and the far right party have won their elections, but immediately afterwards (sometimes within a day, as in the farmers (BBB)) they’ve abandoned key parts of the platform that helped get them elected. Or their positions are so vile that no other party will work with them.

          I’d argue that there are the side effects of taking a position first and wanting change at any cost. This is the cost - only more stagnation.

          My point is “more” does not mean “better” - often, it’s just more of the same. Vote for and demand “Better”.