Instead of Seceding, Work to Reform System

It is absurd and outrageous that West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice would invite counties from Virginia to secede and join West Virginia. That said, that a sitting governor of a neighboring state would make such an invitation speaks to how broken our political system has become. Justice’s remarks make it more clear than ever that the two parties view each other as locked in a zero-sum power struggle in which every election holds the possibility for ultimate victory as well as eternal defeat.

This is a foolish game. While political elites bicker across the nation and in Virginia, the challenges facing America and Virginia mount as their enmity for one another grows. It doesn’t have to be this way. If the two parties cannot solve our commonwealth’s problems, let alone our nation’s, then they don’t deserve their duopoly on political power.

It is time for a multiparty democracy to be formed. Such a system would subject politicians to that which they fear most: real competition. It would have three key features, including ranked choice voting (RCV), multi-member districts (MMD), and proportional representation (PR).

This system would have at least four parties. We might see a legislature with Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Greens and Democratic Socialists. To get anything done, they’d have to work with one another in fluid coalitions differing by issue. In other words, the polarization characterizing our politics since at least the 1990s would break. The good news doesn’t end there. Under RCV, campaigns would become less vitriolic as politicians vie to be your second or even third choice. Moreover, with proportional representation in multi-member districts, political minorities in any given area would be more likely to have at least some representation.

Virginians, as we did in 1787, can lead the way. Let’s build a new democracy right here at home.

Originally printed as a letter to the editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Click here to view.