Big Think

Misha Vargas commented on Are two parties enough? on January 22, 2008, 7:30 AM

I like what I'm hearing. I wonder if Mike Gravel is aware of instant-runoff voting. I consider it just a modification of our current election system.It's very much in the spirit of election fairness that was expressed here. I think it would do a lot of good for candidates just like Mike. The difficulty is in getting it passed.Mike, just give me the word, and I'll give you a brief briefing about instant-runoff voting. That goes for anyone else too. It's an important issue.

Misha Vargas commented on Mitt Romney: Are two parties enough? on January 22, 2008, 5:37 AM

Thanks Mitt, I agree with your analysis.But what you see as being safe from extremism, I see as stagnation. Every candidate has to move to the center, to the status quo, to avoid being "out-moderated". If he doesn't, he is dismissed by the media as "unelectable". This results in over-representation of moderates, and puts a lot of barriers up against new ideas.Outside the options of a multi-party system in which the largest minority can rule, and our system %u2014 in which you're stuck with only two choices, there's a system that allows for a real diversity of candidates and features the compromise and moderation of our own system.It's called instant-runoff voting.

Misha Vargas commented on Are two parties enough? on January 22, 2008, 2:30 AM

I like what I'm hearing. I wonder if Mike Gravel is aware of instant-runoff voting. I consider it just a modification of our current election system. It's very much in the spirit of election fairness that was expressed here. I think it would do a lot of good for candidates just like Mike. The difficulty is in getting it passed. Mike, just give me the word, and I'll give you a brief briefing about instant-runoff voting. That goes for anyone else too. It's an important issue.

Misha Vargas commented on Are two parties enough? on January 22, 2008, 1:20 AM

Just commenting to agree with captphatsidy and rgdudley about instant-runoff voting.Until you have a preferential voting system, you cannot vote for a third party candidate; you must take into consideration other peoples votes, or risk wasting yours.Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and other politicians with strongly divergent positions (e.g. Pat Buchanan and The Chicken Man) should support instant-runoff elections. And so should anyone who feels unrepresented in the debates up on the stages and in the media.

Misha Vargas commented on Mitt Romney: The Principles of Mormonism on January 22, 2008, 12:44 AM

Thus saith Romney! (paraphrased): Judaism teaches that Jesus is the savior of the world.It was a weird sentence. There was no reason to drag Judaism into it. I guess it's just force of habit nowadays to say Judeo-Christian.One could make a case that Islam also "flows from the Judeo-Christian ethic" (whatever THAT is), but doesn't quite credit "Isa" with saving the world.