In Reply to: For God's sake, it's not a mystery. CA has done it twice. posted by BluBlood on May 09, 2026 at 07:45:39
but has it been stress tested?
California is run by Democrats, people who have thing about following the rules and being fair. You institute a system like this nationally, it will probably work reasonably well in places dominated by Democrats. For the rest? For the states that are highly contested? For states that are run by MAGA or MAGA-adjacent Machiavellians?
In states that are not interested in playing nice, those "unaffiliated" positions are the weak point. So is the state legislature who's there to narrow the list. And then there's the auditor and that random selection stage. There is also what happens when the commission becomes fully dysfunctional. If you are smart and organized enough, and Republicans have been both, those are all points of corruption begging to be attacked.
Before we claim that the system we have here can be a national model, I think we should game out the kind of stress that a MAGA or MAGA like aggressive contingent would impose on it and see where things can go. In fact, I suspect that the next commission is going to get more contentious than the last, having gone through a mid-decade redistricting, and red California getting progressively more militant and more pissed off.
I'm ok with my concerns being dismissed. I've lived my entire life with my Cassandra complex. And I can be very patient with certain things.