[Northampton-GP] Important Local Talk scheduled on election reforms

[John Pepi]

The UMass Graduate Employee Oganization (GEO) is sponsoring a talk
Tuesday February 4th, at 4-6 pm, CC 162-175, by noted author and
activist Steven Hill. (Mr Hill is also speaking at the Jones Library at
Noon and Broadside Books at 7:30 p.m. in Northampton the same day)
 
Steven Hill's new book "FIXING ELECTIONS: THE FAILURE OF AMERICA'S
WINNER-TAKE-ALL POLITICS" (Routledge Press, www.FixingElections.com) is
attracting national attention. Noted author Michael Lind has said that
Fixing Elections "is the most important book on American Democracy that
has come out in many years." Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor of The New
Yorker, 
has written, "Here's the eye-opening news from Steven Hill's new book:
our 'winner-take-all' electoral system is a mug's game that makes losers
of us all.  He explains why - convincingly. And he tells us what we can
do about it."

Mr. Hill has been on a national speaking tour for his book. He has made
book appearances on Fox News, CSPAN (Book-TV), TV programs in Boston,
San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and has given interviews on over 50
radio stations. He writes a syndicated column for the
Knight-Ridder-Tribune news service and his articles and commentaries
have appeared in dozens of national newspaper and magazines including
the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, the Nation,
Ms., New York Daily News, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, and many
others. 

For further information contact:
 
Leo Maley, GEO, 5-5317
Peter Vickery, FairVote Massachusetts, 253-3900
John Pepi,  Massachusetts Green Party, 268-9276
 
****************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
 
 
AUTHOR'S PROFILE
Steven Hill is co-founder and Associate Director of the Center for
Voting 
and Democracy, a nonprofit organization promoting election reform. He 
frequently appears on radio and TV to discuss political issues, and his 
articles have appeared in dozens of national newspapers, magazines and
the 
academic press, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New
York 
Daily News, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Salon.com, Ms., Houston 
Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, San Francisco

Chronicle, and many others. He is also co-author of the book Whose Vote 
Counts? with Rob Richie (Beacon Press, 2001). He was campaign manager
for 
two recent ballot propositions (Prop A/Instant runoff voting & Prop
O/Public 
financing of elections) that were passed by San Francisco voters. He
lives 
and works in San Francisco.

Publisher's Information:
PRAISE FOR FIXING ELECTIONS:
"Fixing Elections is the most important book on American democracy that
has 
come out in many years." 
-- Michael Lind, coauthor of "The Radical Center: The Future of 
American Politics"
"Fixing Elections is a provocative reminder that we desperately need to 
re-invigorate our democracy. By cataloguing the elements of the crisis 
facing our divided polity, from orphaned voters to a far-reaching
political 
depression, Steven Hill shows how crucial it is to explore the
unfairness of 
our electoral system's underlying structure rather than simply working
to 
reform the mechanics of voting." 
--Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law, Harvard University

"FIXING ELECTIONS: THE FAILURE OF AMERICA'S WINNER-TAKE-ALL POLITICS" 
By STEVEN HILL 
Routledge Press 
September 2002 
ISBN: 0-415-93193-2
www.FixingElections.com <http://www.fixingelections.com/> 
Publisher's Description:
Was the lesson of Florida punch-cards that we need better machines, or
that 
there's something deeply wrong with a system where the candidate with
fewer 
votes wins the office? "Fixing Elections" shows why it's not just the 
Electoral College that's outdated, but our entire 18th-century Winner
Take 
All political system, including the way we elect our legislatures.
While voter turnout plummets to single digits (even episodes of
"Survivor" 
drew larger audiences than cast votes for either Gore or Bush), analysts

have blamed the growing apathy of the American electorate. But as 
provocative political critic Steven Hill so eloquently argues, we're not
a 
lazier, less civic-minded people than our grandparents. Voting just
seems 
pointless to many citizens because they recognize the truth: their votes

really DON'T count.
A vote for Nader may have been a wasted vote, but so was a vote for Gore
in 
solidly GOP Texas, or Bush in Democratic New York, where the state's
winner 
was a foregone conclusion. In legislatures, rigged district lines render

impotent the votes of millions of Americans, Democrat, Republican and 
independent alike. Democrats in safe GOP legislative districts all
across 
the West and South, and GOP voters in safe urban Democratic districts,
have 
become "orphaned voters" with nowhere to turn, no less than third party 
supporters everywhere. Entire regions of the country are becoming
balkanized 
political monocultures, dominated by one political party or the other as
the 
political landscape fragments into the "Red and Blue America" that
emerged 
from Election 2000.
Steven Hill argues our geographic-based, Winner Take All political
system is 
at the root of many of our worst political problems, including:
* Single-digit voter turnout in elections all across the nation... 
* A Congress that doesn't look or think like America... 
* National policy dangerously adrift from public opinion... 
* A president who won with less than a popular majority, and fewer votes

than his main opponent... 
* A growing divide between city-dwellers and middle-America... 
* Bitter national division and regional fragmentation that hasn't been
seen 
since the 1960s... 
* Political consultants producing McCampaigns of poll-tested
blandness... 
* Campaign tricks and tactics (polling, focus groups, and the 30 second
TV 
spot) sinisterly suited to Winner Take All's "divide and conquer" 
incentives... 
* Undermining of campaign finance reform... 
* An alarming loss of innovative political ideas...
These are some of the disturbing trends highlighted by this pathbreaking
and 
challenging work of political analysis and deconstruction. In the face
of 
cynicism about the American political system, "Fixing Elections" is a 
refreshing blueprint to resurrect our founders' democratic vision. It
will 
change the way you think about American politics.

 

John Pepi 
General Manager 
UMass Amherst Office of Waste Management, 
Moving and Surplus Property Services 
phone:(413) 577-3013 fax: (413) 545-4737 
e-mail: jpepi at admin.umass.edu   web:www.umass.edu/recycle 

"It is those who do terrible things under our Nation's flag who drag it
through the dirt. It is the people who want to pick it up and wash it
off by correcting injustices who are the true patriotsl."  Pete Seeger



 
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