Great piece. If you aren't already acquainted, you should reach out to Clay Shentrup who runs electionbyjury.org. I know he is putting together a group to make this a reality.
I think we need recurring constitutional conventions by multi-body sortition to effectively bypass politicians and allow each generation a few opportunities to redesign the rules for their rulers. If you agree, we could also use your help at AssembleAmerica.org.
I hear you on this, but I fear that the demands of modern elections mean that even the most well-informed and well-intentioned voters can never make a truly informed decision, which means we will perpetually be doomed to defaulting to the outcomes forced upon us by the most well-funded, well-oiled propaganda machines that are ultimately serving the interests of a vanishingly small subset of the population. Plus, the inherent flaws of our current electoral system, with its winner-takes-all dynamics combined with a susceptibility to vote-splitting leading to false mandates from a plurality of voters, and the pervasive influence of money, mean that whatever emotional and social bonds are forming are only being shared within walled-off, siloed tribes, rather than across the entire electorate. Perhaps we can have a hybrid approach that delivers the best of both worlds -- the vast majority of elections decided by a Jury alone, with an alternative general election and/or veto mechanism that is available for the rare instances when a Jury's decision somehow ignores or crosses an underappreciated belief, value, or tradition in a way that strikes a chord among the general voting population that demands a different course of action.
Great piece. If you aren't already acquainted, you should reach out to Clay Shentrup who runs electionbyjury.org. I know he is putting together a group to make this a reality.
I think we need recurring constitutional conventions by multi-body sortition to effectively bypass politicians and allow each generation a few opportunities to redesign the rules for their rulers. If you agree, we could also use your help at AssembleAmerica.org.
He is a friend!
pfft, more like devoted follower of your teachings.
i'm here! :D
good post i just wrote on this in practice, for electing members to a georgia county ethics board.
https://electionbyjury.substack.com/p/the-henry-county-test-what-happens
great write-up micah! similar to my manifesto on the topic. https://www.electionbyjury.org/manifesto
I hear you on this, but I fear that the demands of modern elections mean that even the most well-informed and well-intentioned voters can never make a truly informed decision, which means we will perpetually be doomed to defaulting to the outcomes forced upon us by the most well-funded, well-oiled propaganda machines that are ultimately serving the interests of a vanishingly small subset of the population. Plus, the inherent flaws of our current electoral system, with its winner-takes-all dynamics combined with a susceptibility to vote-splitting leading to false mandates from a plurality of voters, and the pervasive influence of money, mean that whatever emotional and social bonds are forming are only being shared within walled-off, siloed tribes, rather than across the entire electorate. Perhaps we can have a hybrid approach that delivers the best of both worlds -- the vast majority of elections decided by a Jury alone, with an alternative general election and/or veto mechanism that is available for the rare instances when a Jury's decision somehow ignores or crosses an underappreciated belief, value, or tradition in a way that strikes a chord among the general voting population that demands a different course of action.