4 The Nation.

November 14, 2016

DC BY THE how many well-informed people don’t. It’s pretty simple.

Wind From Down East

S
Maine questions the two-party system.
choices, boom: He or she wins outright. If not, the second
ay this for the two-party system: At least it’s choices of voters whose first choice was the last-place can-
better than the one-party system. didate become those voters’ first choices. Still no majority?
Apart from that, though, the two-party The process continues till someone goes over 50 percent.
system doesn’t get much love. Lots of people It would be enough if all ranked-choice voting did was
complain about it, but nobody ever seems to to get rid of the spoiler effect and its lamentable perversi-
succeed in doing something about it. Attempts to break out ties (case in point: Florida, 2000). But the salutary side

1871
Year that
of it via third parties eventually trail off into disappoint-
ment and futility. Even its defenders typically sound more
effects of this system of casting and counting votes go well
beyond that. RCV opens up elections, primary and general
resigned than enthusiastic. In its unvarying Democrats-vs.- alike, to a broader, more diverse range of candidates, ideas,
ranked-choice Republicans iteration, it’s been around since the Lincoln and, yes, parties. Because it gives candidates a powerful
voting (RCV)
was invented by administration. We’re stuck with it, goes the received wis- incentive to be the second (or third or fourth, if the field
William Robert dom, so suck it up and live with it. It’s not going anywhere. is big enough) choice of their rivals’ first-preference sup-
Ware, an archi- News flash: That may be about to change, starting on porters, it discourages incivility in general, and scorched-
tect from Boston November 8, in Maine. And you know what they say: “As earth, zero-sum negative campaigning in particular. By the
Maine goes…” same token, it incentivizes good manners and a willingness
6
Countries that
Up in the easternmost state of the Union, an initia-
tive on the November ballot, Question 5, would establish
to entertain the possibility of compromise. It guarantees
that the ultimate winner will always be someone who’s at
use RCV at the something called ranked-choice voting (RCV) for governor least acceptable, however grudgingly, to a majority—and
national level, and both houses of the State Legislature. That’s important. it never yields a winner whom the majority simply cannot
including Aus- It would do the same for primaries as well as for general abide. It empowers voters to deliver a more nuanced mes-
tralia (for its
House of Rep- elections. That’s important, too. But what makes Question sage and allows candidates—who, if the counting goes to
resentatives), 5 of truly national significance is that it would also apply to more than one round, will know where the votes that put
Ireland (for pres- Maine’s United States senators and its two members of the them over the top came from—to receive one.
ident), Papua House of Representatives in Washington. If Question 5 Maine, not coincidentally, is currently the nation’s most
New Guinea (for
its Parliament), passes, it will be what Joe Biden would call (when he knows conspicuous example of the perils of first-past-the-post. The
and Malta (for there’s a hot mic in the vicinity, that is) a very big deal. Pine Tree State is groaning under the misrule of one Paul
its Legislature) I’ll get to RCV in a moment. First, a caution: The LePage, whose tenure as governor has been an uninterrupt-
two-party system is not a malevolent conspiracy. It’s not ed tsunami of outrages, substantive and rhetorical. (Earlier
3
Countries that
an elite-generated “duopoly” whose designers set out to
limit choice, suppress innovative ideas, and marginalize
this year, the governor declared that the state’s drug dealers
are “guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty, these
use RCV to elect candidates and parties that threaten the comfort- type of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York,
party leaders— able (for some) status quo. It’s not even a system they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back
COMMENT

major parties per se. It’s a side effect of a system. The real system home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young
include the UK is simply the set of electoral rules and customs be- white girl before they leave.” When a Democratic legislator
Labour and
Liberal Demo- queathed to us from the primitive political technol- demurred, LePage left him a voice-mail message calling him
cratic parties; ogy of powdered-wig days. The two-party pattern a “son of a bitch socialist cocksucker,” adding, “I want you to
Canadian Liberal is a logical, almost inevitable, maybe even desirable record this and make it public because I am after you.”) How
and Conserva- consequence of two main features of that technol- did such a creature get to be governor in the first place?
tive parties; ogy: (a) single-member districts, which are inherently He did it, Trumpishly, by taking 38 percent of the vote in
and the Czech
Green Party winner-take-all, as are elections for executive offices; and a seven-candidate Republican primary—and then taking
(b) plurality elections, otherwise known as first-past-the- 38 percent again in the general, with the rest split mainly

11
Cities in the
post, under which the candidate with the largest vote total
wins even if a majority of voters would rather have some-
between a liberal-leaning Democrat and a somewhat less
liberal-leaning independent.
body else. When there are more than two non-negligible There are related factors that make Maine fertile
United States
that use RCV for parties contending for a single office, one common result ground for RCV. The winners of nine of Maine’s last 11
municipal elec- is ideological fratricide—the notorious spoiler effect. By governors’ races were elected with less than a majority.
tions, including voting for the party or candidate you like best, you may Maine has more registered independents than either Re-
San Francisco, help elect the one you like least. Another consequence is publicans or Democrats. LePage notwithstanding, Maine
Cambridge, Min- to diminish the chances that the outcome will more or less has a long history of moderate, good-government Repub-
neapolis, and
(as mentioned reflect the wishes of a majority. Given these realities, natu- licanism, from Margaret Chase Smith and William Cohen
at right) Port- ral selection took its course and, by 1828, gave us roughly to Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. One of the US
land, Maine. what we’ve had ever since: a two-party “system.” Senate’s two independents is Maine’s former independent
Question 5 leaves feature (a) untouched. But it takes a governor Angus King, who, like Bernie Sanders, caucuses
 —Julia Mead
chain saw to feature (b). with the Democrats. And many Mainers are already famil-
You may already know about ranked-choice voting, iar with how RCV works. The state’s largest city, Portland,
also known as instant-runoff voting, but it’s surprising is among the dozen or so American municipalities that al-
November 14, 2016 The Nation. 5

ready use this transformative system to elect their mayors. a master at linking outsiders with insiders to push through
As November 8 nears, Question 5’s chances look critical reforms. In his 18 years in the State Legislature,
reasonably good. LePage and the Trumpian rump that he passed important bills on education and animal rights.
loves him are against it, of course, but there has been little As an organizer, political leader, and writer—he was the
organized opposition. On the Yes side, the umbrella Com- author of some 20 books—Hayden was mentor to a gen-
mittee for Ranked Choice Voting ([Link]) has eration of activists.
brought together a formidable coalition of Democratic, Here at The Nation we are especially saddened by the
Republican, Libertarian, Green, and independent politi- loss of a close friend. A longtime contributor to these pages,
cians as well as business leaders and civic organizations,
including, most prominently, the League of Women
Hayden joined our editorial board just weeks before the
attacks of September 11, which gave new resonance to his 1961
Hayden travels
Voters. A mid-September poll by the University of New life’s work. He attended most biannual meetings, often in
Hampshire for the Portland Press Herald showed a 48–29 person and sometimes by Skype, until September of 2015. to the Deep
South on a
lead for Yes, with 23 percent undecided. But success is Hayden’s most recent piece for the magazine, pub- Mississippi
by no means assured. Undecided voters typically break lished in April, was a moving essay about why he was Freedom Ride,
against ballot initiatives, especially ones they don’t fully supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential and is arrested
understand. Also, questions 1 through 4 are all liberal primary. “So here we are, at the end of one generation on and beaten in
rural Georgia.
hobbyhorses: marijuana legalization, a surtax on high in- the left and the rise of another,” he wrote. “Both camps in
comes, background checks for gun transfers, and a higher
minimum wage. By the time even some non-LePage con-
servatives get to Question 5 (the order was decided by lot),
the party will need each other in November—more than
either side needs to emerge triumphant in the primary.
We still need the organizing of a united front of equals to
1962
Hayden writes
they might just go for No on everything. prevail against the Republicans.” the bulk of the
But if Maine’s answer to Question 5 is Yes, ranked- Though an irreplaceable voice for peace has been lost, Port Huron
Statement.
choice voting for US senators and representatives is there will be one more reminder of Hayden’s skill at help-
likely to spread to other states. The state-by-state ap-
proach has been a seldom-recognized template for elec-
toral reform in our federal system. Well before the 17th
ing us understand what it takes to hold the powerful to
account. In January, Yale University Press will publish his
final book, Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace
1965
Along with
and 19th constitutional amendments were ratified, many Movement. For now, we have found inspiration and conso- members of an
antiwar group,
states were already electing their senators by popular lation in revisiting some of the articles he published in our Hayden visits
vote and women were already voting, including for pages. Here he is in 1996: “It is not enough to beat back Hanoi on a fact-
president, in nearly half the country, mostly the western the Gingrichites only to return to the Democratic status finding mission.
half. This time, with any luck, the pioneering laboratory quo.” Hayden suggested beginning the pushback with “a
of democracy will be Down East. HENDRIK HERTZBERG public demand to free the political system from the suf-
focating grip of special-interest money, thus opening the
1968
Hayden and
Hendrik Hertzberg (@RickHertzberg) is a New Yorker staff possibilities of building a sustainable economy and envi- seven other ac-
writer and editorial director of the Nation Institute. ronment for the next generation.” As it was, Hayden feared tivists are tried
he was watching a rerun of Friedrich Nietzsche’s hit show, for inciting a
Eternal Recurrence. “Too many of our elders in the sixties riot at the DNC.

Our New Left Pillar discarded their rebellious children or remained silent when
the time came to take a controversial stand against their
government,” Hayden recalled. “The question haunts me:
1982-92

T
Tom Hayden was mentor to a generation of activists. Hayden is elect-
now that authority has fallen to this generation, how will ed and serves
he writer, political figure, and antiwar activ- we be different from our parents toward those downsized in California’s
ist Tom Hayden died on October 23 at the to despair?” State Assembly.
age of 76, a year and a half after suffering a In 2002, reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the Port
stroke. Now, as they say, he rests in peace— Huron Statement, Hayden acknowledged the many victo- “Looking
a man who devoted his life to making the ries but pointed out, “An escalating national security state
world a place where the living can do the same. From attempts to rivet our attention and invest our resources on un­
helping to found the New Left in the 1960s right up to this fighting an elusive, undefined enemy for years to come, comfortably
turbulent election season, Hayden was a pillar of progres- at the inevitable price of our civil liberties and continued
sive politics, a brilliant strategist and political thinker, and neglect of social justice.” to the world
a leading advocate for a more just and equal society. Increasingly, Hayden connected domestic struggles we inherit.”
As primary author of the Port Huron Statement in with similar ones around the globe. After attending the Tom Hayden
1962, Hayden helped to introduce the idea of participatory 2003 World Social Forum at Porto Alegre, Brazil, he wrote describing his
generation in
democracy to a generation of activists. That principle would that an alternative to global capitalism was emerging in the Port Huron
guide Tom through decades of work on an astonishing num- Latin America: “Instead of NAFTA-style agreements that Statement (1962)
ber of issues, from the civil-rights struggle to community solely protect foreign investors, this alternative model —Emilio Leanza
organizing in Newark in the early days of Students for a would offer enforceable protections to workers, women and
Democratic Society, opposing the Vietnam War, and join- the environment as well—on both sides of the border. In-
ing the global-justice movement against neoliberal austerity. stead of sweatshops and child labor there would be unions
In his work as founder of the Campaign for Economic and literacy programs. Instead of damming rivers and slash-
Democracy and as a California state legislator, Hayden was ing rainforests, there would be conservation programs for
(continued on page 8)
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