[ConceptJunkie]

Forget everything else, it's First Past the Post voting that is the cause of many of our problems (e.g., no possibility of third parties).

If we had an alternative voting system (there are several good ones), people could actually vote _for_ someone rather than just _against_ someone, and there would be some criteria for voting other than who can put out the most inflammatory campaign commercials.

But again, the status quo would never go for it, and I suspect most voters wouldn't go for a system that can't be explained on a bumper sticker. I'm not trying to insult the intelligence of the average voter, just their attention spans.

[magduf]

Or maybe we shouldn't be voting for people at all, but instead parties. That's how it works in Europe, and they don't have the two-party system we have because of it.