Why Has Mass Media Forced Political Parties To Change The Way Candidates Are Nominated?

It would be piece of cake to quit. Information technology'south tempting to turn off the news, stop listening to toxic taunts from the high pulpits of politics, stop voting in a political organization hijacked by extremists, stop trusting politicians in both parties who refuse to address existential threats such as climate change and unaffordable health care.

California is burning. Tensions with Islamic republic of iran are smoldering. Kids are being slaughtered in schools. Life in America is hard and getting harder for working-class people, many of whom are forced to choose every month betwixt paying rent or buying prescription drugs. Information technology would be so easy to quit.

Please don't. Our broken politics can exist fixed, and there are signs it'south already happening.

As former members of Congress who found a style to work across the alley, nosotros are encouraged to encounter growing momentum across the land for political reforms that put voters offset.

From Alaska to New York, citizen-led initiatives are underway or have passed that will critically alter the landscape of electoral politics. In Virginia, the new bipartisan Commonwealth Caucus recently launched to find common ground and advance electoral reforms. Most heady, we have seen up close what polls have shown — that a majority of Americans desire a functioning government and elected leaders who put "We, The People" over special interests and their own political parties.

Partitioned voting booths with attached pamphlets.

The fundamental to fixing our broken political system is to give voters a new voice — a proportional vox — in our elections, which are all too often skewed to the advantage of the partisan extremes.

Most voters aren't ideological

In a comprehensive survey of Americans, the Pew Inquiry Centre found that those who hold ideologically unyielding views are less than a third of the electorate, but they are twice as likely as their more than businesslike neighbors to attend political events, piece of work on campaigns, contribute to candidates and, nigh of import, vote in primaries.

This gives ideologically driven voters a asymmetric influence in elections. It'southward no wonder studies take shown that members of Congress tend to have more ideologically extreme views than the constituents they represent.

To address this problem, we must support efforts to increment participation, competition and accountability in our elections.

Talking information technology out:Learning to talk over complicated issues ahead of the election

Nosotros desire to hear from yous:Be a part of the solution to finding solutions. Tell us here.

First, we must open up primary elections to all voters. In many states, contained voters are excluded from party primaries, despite the fact that their revenue enhancement dollars are used to fund those elections. Too often, the master is the just election that matters, every bit politically 1-sided districts make the general election a mere formality. Past excluding independents, these states encourage candidates to cater to the almost extreme elements of the electorate.

Second, we must end partisan gerrymandering. We can do so by supporting independent redistricting commissions to describe commune boundaries — ensuring that voters cull their representatives rather than politicians choosing their voters.

3rd, nosotros must push back against negative campaigns. Ranked pick voting is one fashion to exercise and so –– by giving voters the option to rank their candidates rather than choosing just 1. This organization increases civil and substantive campaigns, saves money by removing the need for costly runoff elections, and gives voters more voice and option by allowing candidates from exterior the two-party duopoly to run without fear of "spoiling" an election.

Make voting easier, more secure

Quaternary, we must make casting an informed ballot easier and more than secure, especially in primary elections. Vote-by-postal service systems let voters to receive their ballots in advance of Election Solar day, dramatically increasing turnout and giving voters a ameliorate opportunity to practice their enquiry on candidates and ballot measures.

Finally, we must support candidates who demonstrate a commitment to putting land over party and to enacting the political reforms necessary to restore businesslike problem-solving, and but as important, to restore Americans' faith in our arrangement of self-government.

We believe the best opportunity to address the most pregnant challenges facing our country is to fix the trouble that prevents progress in the beginning identify — the gridlock and polarization caused by America'southward broken political arrangement. Reversing the downwardly screw of hyperpartisan politics won't be piece of cake and tin't be achieved by any single organisation; it will have a nationwide movement that reflects the diversity of our nation and the complexity of the problem we are trying to solve.

Fortunately, that grassroots movement to put voters get-go is growing across the land. We are proud to join every bit co-chairs of Unite America's Advisory Lath, whose strategy aims to accelerate and calibration this movement past mobilizing significantly more resources from political philanthropists. We are committed to doing our office by investing in the reforms and candidates that offer the all-time opportunity to foster a more than functional and representative government.

Jason Altmire, a Democrat, is a quondam representative of Pennsylvania'due south 4th Congressional Commune, serving from 2007 until 2013. Carlos Luis Curbelo, a Republican, is a quondam representative of Florida's 26th Congressional District, from 2015 to 2019. Follow them on Twitter: @jasonaltmire and @carloslcurbelo