Moore/Contingency in 202X!
Vote whenever you like! Vote as many times as you like! Never throw your vote away!
It’s election day! Aren’t you glad that when you go to the polls today and consider the things you (and assuredly millions of other Americans) want your elected government to accomplish in the next few years, that you are voting for someone who will definitely make that happen? Well… maybe at least, confident that the one you’re voting for won’t do some pretty bad stuff? At least you get a sticker, I guess. But it’s all for a good cause, right?
You know what’s great? Being president. Think of all the good stuff you - that those other millions want too - could get done! But you know what sucks? Running for president. If only there was some way that you could just skip all that annoying campaigning and lying, fighting with primary opponents, sacrificing your principles, watering down of your useful policies and the inevitable onslaught of partisan attacks from the other party. And without having to wait four years each time.
Oh wait, there is! Remember back in the Ye Olde Days when Vice President Agnew resigned? Nixon replaced him, after confirmation by Congress - as per the terms of the 25th amendment - with Gerald Ford. Then a few days later, Nixon resigned, and Ford legally became president. Now, Ford was in Congress when he was nominated, but he didn’t have to be. All he needed was that approval. Nixon could’ve picked any random citizen, so long as Congress was fine with it.
Hey, I’m a random citizen - and I bet Congress would like me, especially if a bunch of you fine voters were to encourage them to do so.
So here’s the plan, your part:
You read the stuff/ideas/policies I’ve put on this substack.
You think: “hey this loser managed to steal some really good policy ideas from far more intelligent people.”
You say to yourself: “I bet if we could actually implement those ideas, really good things would happen, but that’s impossible because so many of them require federal level action, and actually winning a race for the presidency nowadays - while retaining a commitment to good policy - is impossible.”
You read this post. Maybe you think this crazy idea might work! And, because this isn’t a normal election route, you can go ahead and vote for whatever other candidates you like. You aren’t throwing your vote away!
So, from then on, you boost this idea. Tell your friends! Boost the ideas that you think are best, tell me, and we’ll put ‘em on the platform. Tell the pollsters who call - “no, I’m not voting for him, I’m supporting the idea of…. well, you remember Spiro Agnew, right…. look, can you just write this down?”
Which leads into my part:
If enough voters are for this idea, we present it to congress like a “vote of no-confidence”, backed up by the threat of not voting for them en masse in their elections.
The Vice President voluntarily resigns, because congress can remove VPs if it wants to.
The President nominates a random citizen - me - to the office of VP. See, isn’t this fun?
Congress approves - backed up by the threat of “all those cranks won’t vote for if we don’t”
The President voluntarily resigns, because congress can remove presidents if it wants, too.
I nominate the previous VP as the new VP, and the previous president as Presidential Advisor Supreme for the rest of the term, retaining their expertise and democratic mandate.
Then we do all the good bipartisan stuff that you, the citizens, want, without being beholden to the demands of either party.
It is fun, isn’t it?
But I can absolutely see many reasonable objections that you might have!
How are you going to do good things when the current president/congress can’t? Because I have an important advantage. I wouldn’t belong to either party, and I’m not trying win any primary elections, or get re-elected. That means if there’s some grand compromise on immigration, the budget or abortion - that would be approved of by majority of bipartisan actual voters (and there is!), but never by the partisans in either party - I can just use the previous “marshal support for the Contigency plan” system and just redirect to “bipartisan compromise on Issue X” and leverage that to actually get it done. The compromise can reward the legislators (on both sides) who approve it with policy wins, since I don’t have a party backing me to scream that I’m “betraying” them to the other party.
Isn’t this anti-democratic? Not really - by definition, I’d need more “votes” of approval for the plan than either candidate for president would have gotten in the previous election. The only actual democratic electoral outcome being reversed is the single matter of the official authority of the current president, whose expertise and democratic mandate (such as it was) would be retained. If you think they’re a vital cog in the Expression of Democracy, then they will still be heavily involved (perhaps even more effectively) in that process.
Plus, think about it. Which is more democratic?:
Only allowing voting for president one out of every 1,460 days, with two hegemonic parties selecting the only two practical candidates long ahead of time, and if you vote for anything other than Red or Blue, your vote is essentially meaningless.
Or my plan above, which can be done on any day, for any candidate, ignoring partisan limitations, very similar to the “vote of no-confidence” systems in tons of other highly democratic nations - and, I might add, if you don’t like the result… you can just do it again. I’ll leave the whole system in place. If you think I’m doing a terrible job… kick me out, or even better, use it to force me to implement whatever important policy you great voters think is best. I’m not great at math, but I think that’s approximately one thousand times more potential democracy.
Isn’t this just a silly fantasy? Oh, absolutely. I’m just writing words on sand. They’re fun but meaningless. You can just happily ignore me! Because what determines meaning and legitimacy in a democratic society is the actual approval of the majority of citizens, given the widest possible freedom to choose. So, why bother with my crazy plan, when obviously our society is definitely translating democratic desires of the majority into effective political action?
Happy Election Day!