My Interest in Political Reform
Our country sorely needs political reform at both the state and federal
level to improve our political system so that it serves us better. It is
my contention that an important key to this is an improved voting system
that would be conducive to better choices for public office and better
discussions of the policy issues we face.
At the state level I advocate a constitutional amendment on voting that
would do three things: 1) Guarantee every Michigan citizen in good
standing the right to vote, 2) Abolish term limits on the state legislature,
and 3) Institute approval voting in state elections
What is Approval Voting and What Will It Do
Under approval voting in multi-candidate, single-winner elections voters
are allowed to give one vote each to that candidate or candidates they
support with the candidate having the most votes winning. Approval
voting has the advantage of getting rid of the wasted vote, the spoiler
role and the necessity of vote splitting arising from sincere voting as
opposed to tactical or strategic voting (e.g., having to vote for the “lesser
of two evils”),
At the federal level approval voting could easily be introduced into federal
elections by a simple congressional statutory act. That would open up
our political processes to third parties because under approval voting
a vote for your favorite candidate, even if he or she is a member of a
third party, is never a wasted vote. Had approval voting been in place
in the 2000 Florida presidential election, for instance, those 97 thousand
plus who voted for Ralph Nader could have, given pre-election polling
results, decided to cast an additional vote to participate in the real choice
between Bush and Gore. That surely would have given Gore Florida
and the presidential election and better reflected the preferences of those
whose votes counted in that election in that state.
Origins of My Policy Interests
My exposure and interest in voting reform originated with materials I was
exposed to and acquired as a clerical employee of Mathematical Reviews
in Ann Arbor. My initial interest in the issue stemmed from my interest as
a Soviet/Russia specialist in reform in the former Soviet Union. But after
the 1992 run for president by Ross Perot, I realized that opening up our
elections to third parties was essential to getting better discussions of
policy issues in our elections.
Opening up our politics to responsible third parties, which is not possible
without breaking with our current system of plurality voting, has three
important advantages. First, it would give us more, and likely better,
choices especially in presidential elections. Second, having more credible
parties in our state and federal elections would surely lead to more and
better policy discussions. And thirdly, such a change would probably
mitigate against majority control by any single party in our legislative
bodies which would surely compel our current major parties to change
their behavior in those bodies for the better.
A number of my policy views originated from exchanges I had with my
friend and fellow economist the late John Attarian whose article on
“Economism” in the Social Contract Quarterly is an important read on
policy issues. The Social Contract published out of Petoskey, Michigan
by Dr. John Tanton has long published articles that have informed my
thinking. This includes articles on peak oil, population sustainability,
immigration, trade, fiscal policy and budget deficits including other articles
by John Attarian and a special issue on Herman Daly edited by John.
Unfortunately, the positions of all too many of the Social Contract articles
have been met by politically correct responses rather than dialogue
including the outrageous charge by the Southern Poverty Law Center
that its publisher Dr. John Tanton is a racist because of his efforts to
promote immigration reform. Michigan voters concerned about the
future of their children and grandchildren could benefit by taking a
look at the excellent Summer 2018 issue of the Social Contract which
is available free online.
My Appeal to Michigan Voters
My purpose in running for US Senate from Michigan is two fold. First,
to use it and the materials from my websites ( www.nationalrenewal.org
and www.nationalrenewalparty.
of the voting reform issue and of policy issues which I believe need better
national attention. And secondly, if elected, to have the visibility, contacts
and resources that a position in the US Senate would provide that I lack
as a simple concerned citizen to promote voting reform and better discussions
of policy issues at the national level. My appeal to Michigan voters is not
to waste a vote on candidates from our two major parties which are destroying
governance in this country but to give serious consideration to supporting
my campaign and election.
John Howard Wilhelm, Ph.D., Economics University of Michigan 1974
P.S. Anyone interested in helping on this campaign please contact me at:
4 West Eden Court
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108
Tel. 734/477-9942
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