in "Parkinson's Law", ca. 1956.
I hesitate to summarize a genius, but his thesis is basically
that the shape of the debating room decides the fate of the
nation. If it is semi-circular, like a theater, then the
conciliatory members will sit in the middle, and literally
endless negotiations will ensue. If it is rectangular, with
no middle area, there will be no conciliatory members, and the
representatives will know that there is no point in listening
to arguments from the opposite side because they are assholes.
So they will only listen to the arguments from their own
side, because these are the statesmen, and to listen to the
other side is a waste of time.
It has always been fashionable to believe that the Founding
Fathers established a "perfect union", rather than
the "more perfect union" they claimed. In fact, the
FF's naively disregarded the potential for political parties,
which are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution, and chose to
rely on personal integrity of the interested individuals,
which did not outlive them. The origin of the Electoral
College is the best example; this was to be a congress of
elected individuals from each state which would deliberate
over the selection of the executives. The electors were to be
chosen by their wisdom; their choice of candidate was not
expected to be known.
Extreme partisanship such as what we have seen in the last 15
years is not part of the founders' vision, and not well
handled by their historic structure. The state-by-state vote
count is the largest contributor to this imbalance. * doesn't
have to campaign in Texas (I hope he loses), and Kerry doesn't
have to campaign in New England,
because both need Ohio, Missouri, and Florida. Alabama voters
will not see either candidate; neither will Illinois voters.
This is how Al Gore lost in 2000. I ask my 18-yo and 16-yo
sons, as if they and not I were responsible for this, how they
would explain this to an aquaintance in India or China.
If we manage to defeat * this fall, we should immediately
proceed to the basic reform of majority vote, and lose the
Electoral College.