The government is horrible, so I never balk at ideas that might help it be a little bit better. A Virginia congressman has proposed an interesting bill that might help introduce proportional representation to the House in a sideways manner. I say, why not an amendment?
I don’t know if this bill is good, but I think the House might as well be elected using a proportional system. The idea of local interest and limited scope of government is a joke long departed. Regional interest today can be served by the makeup of the Senate. Individuals should vote for the party they like best, and the percentage preferences should be divvied up.
There are two reasons why I prefer this as a libertarian. First, it means the just maybe someone who sort of kind of represents my beliefs could get a voice and office in Congress. Maybe a few people. More importantly, it could break the domination of the two-party system. This is a Pandora’s box, but something in the system needs a shake up. We need Bernie Sanders people in Congress because we need to deal with those ideas directly, rather than deal with people like Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton or Trump.
Of course, if by some miracle that sort of system was passed, I’m sure they’d find some way to manipulate it. Even so, the arguments I used to countenance against proportional representation – well, that was just me being a Conservative.
