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Ed, perhaps your analysis is setting the foundation for a permanent 3rd party, e.g. the Democracy Preservation Party, a safety valve for voters who can rely on the DP Party to run to the right of Lefties and to the left of righties.

John Demma

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Ned, a VERY clear & compelling explanation centripetalism and its potential value, and why the Alaska style run off can't achieve the same results as the modified one you propose.

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Extraordinarily helpful and thought-provoking inquiry into potential electoral reforms in light of the idea of a centripetalist democracy. Lord knows, we could use more centripedelist forces to counter the centrifugal forces at play for so long. But wow, from a practical perspective, your analysis makes clear that there are no easy ways forward. Both Instant Run-Off and Convergence ranked choice voting create downsides in a deeply polarized electorate. That makes me think that, in addition to electoral reforms, we also need to accelerate the movement already afoot to reduce polarization within the electorate. That is a hugely heavy lift too, but if we want to preserve our democracy, I suspect we need to work on both fronts. For more, see https://open.substack.com/pub/remakingthespace/p/we-are-over-the-edge-of-the-wild?r=p5sx8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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