It’s 7 AM on Election Day, and I’m standing outside Boston City Hall. I’m wearing dress pants and a brown tweed vest with a purple tie. Over the top is a dark wool jacket and the flat cap my wife got me for my birthday. It’s cold, maybe 39 degrees, and gusty. In my gloved hand is a wooden pole with a “Yes on 2” sign scotch taped to the top of it.
To my left is a little old woman bundled up like a ball against the cold, with fuzzy black earmuffs. She introduces herself as, “Cam, C-A-M.” It was her Scotch tape I had used to affix the sign to the pole.
Question 2 is the Massachusetts ballot initiative that decides whether the state will use Ranked Choice Voting in future elections. Those who know me will know I have been talking about RCV for years. I think it’s the first, easiest step we can take to structurally reform our democracy.
There’s not much interaction with the voters this morning. Cam yells, “Vote yes on 2!” at people’s backs as they walk into the polling place. Two weeks ago I was at Fenway for the first day of early voting. The lines were huge, and it gave me the opportunity to engage with voters and have real conversations with them. There was even a shot of me holding my sign in the viral “Dunkies Girl” video.
A round man with a short white beard poking out around his face mask walks by. Someday, I think, those masks will be used by Hollywood to indicate they are doing a period piece in the early 2020s – a sign of the times. Unlike most, the man turns to look at us. I smile under my mask, and Cam calls out to him, “Vote yes on 2!”
The man scowls, points at us each in turn, and says, “Un-American.”
“Excuse me?” I respond, as he turns to walk away.
“You’re un-American!” he yells over his shoulder.
“You want to talk about it?” I call after him. To my surprise, he pivots on his foot and starts walking toward us, away from the polling entrance.
“Yeah, I do,” he starts. He proceeds to tell me about how we, by supporting RCV, were conspiring to steal elections away from the person in the lead. “If someone has the most votes, they should win. That’s how democracy works!”
There is a very simple and seductive logic there. The person with the most votes wins. It’s so straight forward. It’s common sense. It’s how we’ve always done things.
Never mind that here in Massachusetts, the Democratic Primary winner for the 4th Congressional district, Jake Auchincloss, won with just 22.4% of the vote. Yeah, he had the most votes, but 77.6% of people – more than three-quarters! – didn’t pick him as their preferred candidate.
We can do better than that. Our country was built on a spirit on ingenuity. I think it would be un-American not to try. After all, that’s the point of our democracy: to adapt and improve over time, to always better itself. Always, we must strive for something better, or as the founders said, toward a more perfect union.
Eventually, the man stalks off. “I guess we’re not going to reach that guy,” I say to Cam. In a way, I was wrong.
A few minutes later, the man walks out of City Hall. “Who’s going to start the violence tomorrow,” he said, “BLM or Antifa?” That’s provocative… I tell him one of the reasons I supported RCV is that it reduces negative campaigning and division because politicians are looking for crossover votes. Somehow we arrive at me being un-American again.
Okay, buddy, you asked for it. I say, “As someone recently separated from the Army, I don’t appreciate that.” The man’s whole demeanor changes, but he’s still suspicious.
“You’re a veteran? I am too. What was your M-O-S.” That’s Military Occupational Specialty; Army speak for, ‘what was your job?’
“18-Echo. Special Forces Communications Sergeant.”
“You’re Special Forces?”
“I was,” I nod.
“Like, a Green Beret?”
“I was,” I nod again.
“Boy! I’m glad I didn’t start something with you! I woulda ended up flat on the sidewalk and not even known what happened! Never judge a book by its cover!”
That actually happens a lot with SF guys. Most of us don’t look like Rambo. It’s called the Grey Man Principle. Most of the time it’s better to avoid highlighting yourself and just fade into the background. It also means people underestimate us frequently. That’s just fine with me.
I swap war stories with the man for awhile. Turns out his name is Tom, and he served as an Artilleryman for a couple years after Vietnam. Occasionally, the conversation drifts into outrage, stemming from stories generated by the Fox News media ecosystem. I gently guide the conversation back to what we have in common. After almost 45 minutes, we shake hands and Tom ambles off.
I find I can’t blame Tom for acting angry and yelling at Cam and me. If I was inside of the Fox bubble, I’m sure I too would be outraged. My anger is reserved for those who cynically create this atmosphere of toxicity and division by knowingly spreading fear and misinformation.
And yet, that’s not even enough. People are just people, and they exist within the incentive structures that we, as a society, build for them. Our democracy incentivizes morally corrupt practices like gerrymandering, which in turn incentivizes extremism in the parties. We created Fox news. We created Trumpism.
That’s why it’s so important that we reform our democracy. If we stop with defeating the other side, another manifestation will rise to take its place. Why? Because it must! Because we have built a system of government that encourages it, not explicitly, but implicitly, through incentives.
We need to reimagine our democracy in a way that incentivizes people like Tom and me to find our common ground instead of fearing the other’s differences. It’s not enough to just ask people to change their behavior. We have to gently guide them to it, of their own free will, by rewarding democratic practices and discouraging anti-democratic ones.
Ranked Choice voting is a good first step along that path. It should not be the last.
