One Fool, One Vote

A surgeon and a man who believes the Earth is flat walk into a polling station, and their votes weigh exactly the same.

There is another way. Don't elect the people who decide. Pick them at random, like a jury.

Ireland did exactly this. The Citizens' Assembly of 2016-17 seated 99 randomly chosen citizens - a cross-section of the country, not the smart, not the credentialed. They spent five weekends on the abortion question, heard experts, argued, voted. They recommended repeal. The parliament sent it to a referendum in 2018, and the country agreed: 66% yes.

The randomly picked group wasn't smarter than the electorate - it was the electorate. What changed was the conditions: time, briefings, and an obligation to listen to the other side before voting. Take a normal person and give them a week instead of a slogan, and the "stupid majority" behaves very differently.

Maybe the problem was never the fool. Maybe it was the ten seconds we give him. 🗳️