Looking Backward from the Tricentennial

Chapter Eight

The sound of a tone prompted Ray to look at the hands of the wall clock. "That's Polly Sigh," he informed them. He made no move to get up from the kitchen table. "Julian, election theory doesn't hold much interest for me; I just vote with the American Union. I'll sit this one out, if you don't mind."

Idabee was already rising from her chair. "Aren't you curious about the science of why it works?" she asked. Julian stood as well, unsure if he should clear his dinner dishes or continue keeping their guest waiting.

"Not that much," Ray said cheerfully. "You two go ahead; I'll clean up." Julian thanked him as he followed Idabee to the parlor.

Polly Sigh was already sitting comfortably when they entered. She was a young white woman around Idabee's age, and her short hair was a vibrant purple. There were several rings in each of her ears, and one in her nose. To Julian's mind, her full-length dress looked contrastingly conservative, its gold hue defined by black lines and diamonds. "Sorry to keep you waiting," Julian said, making his way to a seat across from their guest.

Polly ignored his statement, waiting patiently with her hands folded on her lap. Glancing up at the corner of the room, he saw two red lights plus a green, and remembered how Ray had explained it took several seconds of sitting before the holographic recorders were activated. Only at that point would the light turn green to indicate others were viewing him.

"She can't hear us," Idabee said cheerfully, making herself comfortable on the loveseat. She kicked her shoes off, folded her legs up under her, and gave Julian a warm smile. He cast an eye up at the light; it twinkled green for five quick pulses; red pause; four pulses; red; and so on until the one green pulse stayed steady and Polly was looking in their direction. "Polly, hi! I'm Idabee Leete."

Julian apologized again for keeping her waiting and introduced himself. Polly responded graciously. "I'd love to hear more about your impression of politics back then, but Stella Freedom said you had questions about how the American Union gained political influence."

"Yes, I do," Julian agreed. "I want to understand how it unstuck the political system. Stella explained the historical stuff—how the Phoenix Cycle dictated a new political power would rise—but she was a little fuzzier on how exactly it happened."

"Stella's an amazing historian," Polly gushed. "Can you explain what you mean by stuck?"

"Well, we were stuck with two parties," Julian said, "even though most people wanted more parties and half the country thought of themselves as independent."

Polly nodded. "It's called Duverger's law. It says that when you combine winner-take-all elections with single-member districts, you tend to get two parties. Which is exactly what happened. That dynamic applied across the whole country; in fact, Republicans and Democrats won more than 99% of the time. Because the two of them had a monopoly on getting elected, they were often called the duopoly.

"Another factor was the Electoral College, that thing the Framers made up to stop people from directly electing the president. The Constitution said if no candidate received a majority of electoral votes, the House would decide the president. So as a practical matter, the duopoly was sure to win the presidency, and the strength of the top of the ticket helped to support all their parties' candidates for Congress."

"But people wanted more parties," Julian insisted.

Polly shrugged. "And the Framers wanted zero political parties, which is why they left them out of the Constitution. Math doesn't care about people's feelings, Julian. The electoral system wasn't capable of fielding a multiparty democracy because it was a zero-sum game; a single candidate was elected and all the others lost. A two-party system developed almost immediately, because that's the most efficient model for winning a zero-sum game. George Washington saw it, and warned in his Farewell Address that 'the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge' would lead to 'a frightful despotism.' The names of the parties changed over the centuries, but there were always two major ones.