Ranked-choice voting is simpler than how columnist Bill Nemitz portrays it Sept. 1, making predictions on how it may function and raising complicating factors, one of them how, under existing Democratic National Committee rules, the result “won’t be winner-take-all.” His tangled threads themselves become a Gordian knot of confusion.
I do like the way Nemitz compares confusing issues and the legend of the Gordian knot, in which Alexander the Great severs the knot no one could unravel, cutting it in two with his sword.
Another legend pertinent is the Arthurian, in which it is prophesied that the sword, Excalibur, would be drawn from a stone only by the “rightful” king of Britain. Many of high birth and rank try and fail. It is Arthur, a youth as yet of no recognized distinction, who “pulleth out this sword of this stone” and is “rightwise” to lead the people.
We left Britain’s divine right of kings (hopefully) behind. Recognize these words?: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive … it is the Right of the People … to institute new Government … in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety … .”
Ranked-choice voting is meant to be a sword to cut the knot of confusion elaborated by Nemitz, taking authority (Arthur-ity) back from a handful of “delegates” – who have not always chosen the presidential candidate faithfully in accordance with allocation of delegates – and returning it to the rightwise choice of the people. The Democratic primary winner, contrary to Nemitz, should not be determined by old party committee rules but chosen by the voting people of the party.
Martin Steingesser
Portland
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