A Kiss to Instant Runoff Voting
Vermont largest city, Burlington, has just elected Progressive Bob Kiss as its mayor using instant runoff voting. Burlington is the first “major” city to use instant runoff voting. The funny thing is that political analysts are surprised by the outcome. No one expected Kiss to beat the democratic candidate who had the largest campaign fund and endorsements from many of the major Vermont political players. Many believed that the instant runoff vote wouldn’t be necessary because the Democrat was expected to win the first vote by a majority. In fact Kiss beat her in both the first vote and the runoff.
What does this show?
(1) Instant runoff voting works! When given their choice of the real top two candidates, money and endorsements have less effect on voters. The fear of casting a “wasted vote” is gone and candidates who reflect a city’s real desires win.
(2) Conservative voters would rather have a Progressive in power then a Democrat. This second point is very intriguing. Maybe it is only a reflection of the libertarian nature of Vermont’s conservative population. Maybe it is a tactic to further weaken the Democratic party. However, I think that it should be taken as a major wake up call to democrats: you don’t serve anyone’s interests. Democrats are the status quo and the status quo isn’t what brings people out to vote.
This country needs progressive third parties. Without them there is no debate.
The Democratic Party is a disaster. It needs to be put out of its misery. Support instant run off voting!
I’m curious as to what you mean by “Libertarian.” The reason I ask is in reference to Libertarians in Oregon. I’d become used to the conservative (mainly) Libertarians that live mostly in the countryside throughout Oregon. They are big on small government, you could say, yet, many support President Bush. This, to me, is baffling. It seems to me that these folks are more like Republicans with a libertarian streak. Religion is no big deal for them. Property rights, however, are. They are usually big supporters of the war for some reason, too. The abolishment of gun control, of course, is a primary issue as well. I just pictured that Vermont had more lefty third-party members as opposed to Libertarians.
Also, can there be such a thing as a liberal with a libertarian streak? Libertarians tend to support issues dealing with personal freedom, almost to the point of being selfish. I just don’t see that jiving in liberal circles. However, I do see some aspects of libertarianism that root themselves in liberal politics.
Fill me in about Vermont!