Dec.11

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, Day 7: Merry Christmas America, Part II

Reader T.B. in Powell, OH posed this question to readers: "Imagine you were going to give a Christmas gift to the United States. Specifically, a law, institution, initiative, civic structure, or like commodity imported from some other nation. What gift would you bestow?"

And now, another half-dozen answers:

• P.R. in Arvada, CO: My gift to the United States would be the gift of Standard Time. Imagine a world where the clocks never change, and we embrace the simplicity of Standard Time year-round. This gift to the U.S. would bring numerous benefits. First, it would eliminate the biannual disruption to our sleep patterns, promoting better health and well-being. It would also mean that no one has that one clock that is always wrong. Standard Time, in particular, aligns more closely with our natural circadian rhythms, ensuring that our bodies receive the right amount of daylight throughout the year. Unlike Daylight Saving Time, which can lead to darker mornings and disrupt our natural wake-up cues, Standard Time provides a more balanced distribution of daylight. This can improve mood, reduce the risk of seasonal affective disorder, and support overall mental health. By adopting Standard Time, we can foster a more harmonious and balanced lifestyle for everyone. For thousands of years people kept time where noon was determined by the sun being at the highest point in the sky. If they can do it, so can we.
  
  
• P.W. in Springwater, NY: Wow, I would be thrilled with any of the gifts your readers suggested yesterday, but your item on the "word of the year" led me to think about one reason the U.S. has become so polarized—the politicization of our Supreme Court. So, from Europe, I would propose a gift of an ideologically balanced Supreme Court. Given how much faith in our Supreme Court has declined, and how this is likely to decline even further if and when any of the current justices dies or resigns over the next 4 years, this seems like a timely and apropos gift. And as this article (published many years ago, but still relevant) points out, there are numerous ideas for gifting. These are some of my favorites:
  
  
  • Increasing the number of justices
  • Fixed terms rather than life appointments
  • A bipartisan selection process requiring more than 50+1 votes to confirm
  • Deciding cases through consensus, rather than majority rule
  • An enforceable code of ethics (not included in the article, but recent events have highlighted a real need for this...)
  
  If I found this under my tree, I'd definitely share!
  
  
• J.D. in Greensboro, NC: The gift I would give is The Onion taking over all the major cable news outlets. If we're going to be fed B.S. every day it might as well be funny B.S.
  
  
• M.H. in Sydney, NSW, Australia: Compulsory preferential (a.k.a. "ranked choice") voting. With love from Australia.
  
  
• J.C. in Thủ Dầu Một, Bình Dương, Vietnam: A return to the British Empire. Let's be honest. It appears that we now have the same government we strove to leave, and we've done such a hash job of it compared to the Motherland that we should just return like Newfoundland. I don't see how the last 200 years could have been any worse.
  
  
• G.G. in Horseheads, NY: The Canadian healthcare system. Or something that's single-payer, Medicare-for-All.

We'll be doing this question for a couple more days. If you care to weigh in, send your picks to comments@electoral-vote.com. And if you have a suggestion for what holiday-themed thing we should do next week, let us know. (Z)