Combative Congress front cover

Liberty

Gallup 2023

Number of Parties by Country

The Statue of Liberty

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, June 12, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Combative Congress, Your Power! Your Voice! has been published by Solve American Gridlock LLC https://www.solveamericangridlock.com/. The mission of the book is to be a handbook to the electoral systems used for electing Congresspersons and the changes needed to have more competitive viewpoints and choices among candidates.

This book analyzes why Congress has only two parties and explains why changes in the electoral systems will open competition to additional parties and a much more civil and productive Congress. Other important countries have an average of 3.9 parties.

One change it develops is instituting Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) for all primary and general elections. RCV, also known as instant runoff voting, is a proportional and nonpartisan voting method. Instead of holding a separate runoff election in the future, voters are given the option to rank candidates in the order of their preference to produce an “instant runoff” result. Voters rank candidates in order of choice. They may rank as many or as few as they please.

The winner will always have a majority. Candidates have reason to be more civil and issue-focused due to the possibility of gaining second or third choice votes and thus having a chance to win in a later round.

RCV has been tested and is well accepted. For example, it is used in many U.S. Universities; the Academy Awards Oscars selections; internationally in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and North Ireland, Scotland, Malta, many European countries; Maine and Alaska. It can be and is used in state and local elections ever more widely in the USA.

Combative Congress develops other electoral systems changes. These are Open, Nonpartisan Primaries using RCV and steps to eliminate gerrymandered districts for the House of Representatives.

Combative Congress addresses a serious and complex topic in ways that make reading it pleasant. This nonpartisan book is unique in that its appeal stretches from a high school student to a professor, from a young woman to a retired chemical engineer, and more. It was written to be concise and readable in less than three hours with some humor; it has 33 color graphs and photographs to implant images of concepts in the reader’s mind; and it has short chapters and good references.

National constitutions have lasted an average of only 17 years since 1789. America’s Constitution has lasted over 230 years! The book points out the need for continued vigilance.

In 2014, about 94% (https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congress_elections,_2014) of incumbent congressional candidates were returned to office, but the approval rate for Congress was around 15% (https://news.gallup.com/poll/180113/2014-approval-congress-remains-near-time-low.aspx). How in the world can that be? The answer is that we have broken electoral systems.

Solve American Gridlock LLC’s primary focus is educating citizens about improvements that can be made in the methods used to elect members of Congress.

Tom Mast is the founder of Solve American Gridlock and lives in Austin, Texas. He is a retired engineer with degrees from The University of Texas, Stanford, and the Harvard Business School. He served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, spent his career in manufacturing and engineering management, and has long been interested in our country’s polarization, the duopoly in our Congress and its causes, and what improvements we must encourage.

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Thomas Rush Mast
Author
combativecongress@masts.us

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