American right wing subversion of democracy

Anybody with a serious interest in protecting America's democratic institutions should pay heed to this article by a former Republican staffer who left his party in disgust. It paints a truly terrifying picture of where we are headed.

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

>>6

It's because of our voting system. The US has a single member district system, one politician for one district, even if he/she got just 51% of the votes. The other 49% is irrelevant. This encourages the formation of "big tent" parties, which focus on appealing to a wide variety of groups to gain as many votes as possible over the other party. Any more than two parties doesn't work, the weakest (third party) is pushed out.

Meanwhile, under a proportional representative system, districts elect multiple representatives based on how many votes their party received. As an example, if Party A got 45%, Party B got 30%, and Party C got 15% of the votes, A would get three reps, B two, and C one, or some other proportion or based on population. Under this system, third parties are viable and even encouraged.

There's also political polarization and corporatism, but those are more like symptoms.