Party Politics and IRV

The election in the 23rd Congressional seat in New York got me thinking about party politics. On one hand Newt Gingrich supports the RINO (Republican in Name Only) and Sarah Palin supports the Conservative party candidate. I respect both people but I tend to lean the way of Sarah, but quite frankly it doesn't matter what I think, I live in Colorado's third Congressional district.

What the controversy does highlight is the idea of third party candidate. I really like the idea of at least three political parties and not two. The reason is because the third party is like a check on the other two parties. When I worked in a laboratory, as a check on ourselves, we used to send our lab samples to three independent laboratories. If you send them to just two laboratories and they both had different answers, how would you know which one is correct?

A problem that we never encountered in the laboratory, that does occur in politics, was a limited electorate. What I mean is if a voter selects a candidate, that takes away from another candidate. So if you had two parties that lean in one direction, they will "split the vote" and will cause the candidate that is "wrong" to win the race.

I like the idea of an instant runoff voting (IRV) that the folks in Aspen use in thier elections. This is where you rank the candidates and the highest ranking candidate wins. This also gives third parties a chance. Here is a video explaining IRV...



For now I guess, I am going to have to stick with the Republican Party and try to fix the party (as Ronald Reagen suggested), even though I do not agree with the current leanings of the Republican party of "Democrat Light". I really do not like the Democratic party and how liberal they have become, and the path they are taking this country. I think that Republicans are trying to do the same thing (just at a slower pace), I will have to vote Republican and maybe I can make a difference in the primary elections. For now it is a necessary evil. I guess we now know why George Washington warned about party politics in his farewell address.