Mark Cuban Shark for Democracy
In April Mark Cuban reopened the door for a potential independent run for President in 2020. He said, though, that it was “highly, highly unlikely” and that his family “voted against it and I was the only vote for it.”
So, not surprisingly, Cuban just shut the door, at least for 2020. It appears he has kept the door open for 2024.
Cuban’s talk with Andrew Yang about it on June 2 in this great little 8-minute segment is where Cuban disclosed his polling numbers.
Cuban reported he received 77% support from independents. But, his total aggregate vote was 25%. That’s a lot of votes — Perot received 19% in 1992 — they do not a President make.
We couldn’t agree more with Cuban’s response to Yang’s suggestion that a third party is needed. Cuban says:
“You get the same thing that happens in any organization where power creates its own privileges and opportunities and you just turn into another party, which is why I just wanted to do this as an independent.”
The country is full of many different perspectives and voices, but you’ve got two and only two that gets respect — literally and figuratively in American politics and in major media. They are the Democratic and Republican parties. Perhaps the only thing that appears to contest this — according to major media, at this point — is Donald Trump, whose talent for polarization has managed to bring about something truly extraordinary. When key leaders of the U.S. Military are in the same camp as progressives in their desire to see Trump’s tail lights in November, you know there’s no room for anyone else in this race. Trump, his own worst enemy, cleared the deck and the two-party system was all too happy to accommodate. Do we, as independents, like having only two choices? Hell no, but it is what it is…for 2020.
The People’s Billionaire
Some folks have begun calling Cuban “The People’s Billionaire”. How many billionaires are as accessible as Mark Cuban? Few to none.
But, we in the Texas independent movement, prefer calling Cuban “shark for democracy”. It started when he came out for this important Texas lawsuit brought by the Center for Competitive Democracy (CCD) and tweeted out the League of Independent Voters of Texas (LIV) Lobby Day in 2019. (Note: LIV, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, does not endorse candidates or parties.) Cuban supports the CCD’s efforts to open up the ballot access laws in Texas for independents and minor parties.
Will our country be ready for a serious breakout independent electoral movement by 2024? Very possible. But, such a candidacy begs the question of how to effectively expand democracy without suffering unintended consequences like the so-called “spoiler effect” in our calcified two-party system. What is the remedy to the spoiler effect? Rank choice voting is one such remedy, but is it enough?
Political scientist, Lee Drutman, in his new book “Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop” lays out a powerful case that since the 1980’s, the U.S. party system has become a doom loop. He writes,
“America is divided over two competing visions of national identity. Politics is now all about winning and losing. Government is breaking down…When partisanship turns toxic…When loyalty is absolute, parties can mislead voters they supposedly represent into supporting policies that in fact make their lives worse off.“
Drutman also challenges the notion that calling for “more moderation” and “civility” can do anything to break the “doom loop”. He argues for the counter-intuitive, i.e. that we increase competition in elections. In so doing, we will allow for more political diversity in the country, which can help as a stabilizing force. But, what do we do about a structural flaw in the U.S. political system that keeps an effective two-party monopoly in place?
Despite their disdain for partisanship and parties, the Founding Fathers left the door open for what we have today — no real choices but two. They failed to enshrine in the American constitution features seen in other western industrialized democracies that allow for proportional representation. Drutman gets us out of the doom loop by recommending Multi-Winner Ranked-Choice Voting for congress, and Single-Winner Ranked-Choice Voting for president. He points out that these changes can be made without the need of a constitutional amendment.
The real question, of course, is HOW do we actually get our country there? This is an organizing question and one I’ve been seeking answers for all my adult life — for over 40 years!
We hope Cuban persuades Andrew Yang and others who have the means and intelligence to think out of the box to help create a shark tank for democracy.
The Democracy Shark Tank needs to examine the failures over the last 50 years in order to experiment with new ways to give electoral competition a jump start in our country. In that quest, I believe there will be millions of independents — that 77% who showed their willingness to vote for Cuban in 2020 — ready to move with new experiments based on what, so far, has failed. Some of them are going to start succeeding, if I have anything to say about it.
What do I suggest for this election? Make your choice and insist the election be fair and free from any and all kinds of intimidation or suppression. Our democracy depends on it. Our lives depend on democracy.
Read Rich Winger’s book review of Drutman’s book and join the LIV study group.
Reach out to me at: info@independentleaguetx.org.
Oh, LIV has a survey on its home page and loves getting your feedback. It’s a real survey, not a few questions already answered in the question itself.