I understand your points and I respect them. I think we agree on most things.
But this country is not an oligarchy. It is a duopoly. We use the term oligarchy to mean a small group of people running everything, which may be true at a given point in time, but what we truly have is a duopoly. There are two ruling parties in this country who have absolute power over literally everything in government, they just take turn back and forth as far as who’s in charge at a particular point in time.
No one else has a chance to become president, full stop…not debatable. If you are not a republican or democrat, you have quite literally zero chance. On paper there is a technical chance, but we’re not dealing with paper, we’re dealing with reality.
What about the house and senate? Aren’t there independents? Yes. And now we need to look at how much a non-democrat/republican has actual power to affect change.
When was the last time an independent drafted a bill of any significance that passed? When was the last time a house or senate vote was decided by anything other than a democratic or republican majority?
You used the phrase “a government beholden to its voters.” I like the idea, but again the only way the government is beholden to its voters is on paper. In reality it’s the other way around. The duopoly decides what choices you have and thus they aren’t beholden to anyone. We are beholding to the offerings they decide to give us. Ross Perot running as an independent was a noble move against the machine and raised some eyebrows, but let’s be honest. Even in the 90s that idea was long dead before it popped in his head.
Oligarchy is a euphemism with respect to American politics. Call it what it is…a duopoly that decides what we get to vote on.
I often wonder what it would take to fix things. I have heard defenses of the 2-party system, but it feels like our current system is akin to trotting out Deacon Hill at QB over and over. There is no guarantee that going a different direction is going to be better, but it CANNOT be any worse.
I think primaries should be done away with, they just force each party further towards their fringes. Political parties should have conventions, and each party should put forth whomever they feel is the best candidate. Let the people decide in the general election, we don't need to be put through this crap twice.
I also think ranked-choice voting could solve some of these problems. No one who actually cares about the election results will vote for Stein, or RFK Jr., or Cornell West, because it is obvious they do not have large enough coalitions to win, and hence it is a wasted vote. But if people knew that if their first choice was eliminated, they still got to vote for their 2nd choice, it would be much easier to reach a critical mass of voters in support of someone other than GOP or Democrat. Ranked-choice voting also leads toward more moderation and less extremism.
I also think our country is hungry for new parties, especially in highly polarizaed areas (deep red or deep blue).
Perry Bacon makes a good case for a "Great Jobs and Great Schools" party (pro business, socially more liberal than GOP) to run against Democrats in deep blue areas, and a "Leave Us Alone" party (economically liberal, libertarian leaning) to oppose GOP in deep red areas.
There is a lot of common-sense stuff that a
majority of people want, but no party has an appetite for because it upsets the fringes (or the politicians themselves)...
Prohibit stock trading among members of congress and their spouses
Secure the border while facilitating immigration of skilled workers
Minimize the role of money in politics
There should be commonsense gun control
If a party was formed centering around some of these ideas, and the electoral system was tweaked, I think it could get traction.