You're Right, Bernie....

[Pat Mustard]

Listen, you buy into the two-party game, I get it. But I think it has to change, and I put my money where my mouth is. You don't like my vote? Earn my vote. Don't take me for granted. And that's exactly what the Democrats did this election, and fucked the country in so doing.

The only way to get rid of a two party system is to bring in some form of PR, as FPTP just gives all the spoils to the top dog. If all of California's congress seats were given based on a proportion of a single statewide vote it'd allow smaller parties to run with the expectation of having a chance. So say for example the vote went Dems 52%; Reps 31%; Libs 11%; Socs 6%, the Dems would pick up 27 seats, the Reps 16, the Libs 6 and the Socs 3 (assuming I'm right in thinking California is allocated 52 seats in Congress).

Now this system causes two problems for the US, what to do with the small problem states and what to do with the senate. For the first, I think the best way is to amalgamate them for congress elections so that you've a number of states running as a single constituency, and for the second, I think the senate should be abolished as all it is is an unneccessary brake on legislation, it gives too many options to kill, weaken or add pork barrels to needed laws. This is especially so in the US where the head of government (and his cabinet) is not part of, nor directly answerable to parliament.