| Hi, everyone! It was great to be away, but it's equally great to return to … a democracy "menaced by two dragons"? Contributing columnist Danielle Allen explains that the twin problems of an out-of-whack electoral college and runaway gerrymandering are wrecking our system of government. But, she writes, instead of abolishing the college (too hasty) or attacking gerrymandering itself (too hard), we could kill both dragons with one stone. If you've been following her recent work, you won't be surprised to see that the stone Danielle has in mind is an expanded House of Representatives. Here's the logic: More House members, and thus more electors, would dilute the advantage the electoral college gives small states, while still retaining what Danielle calls a necessary "smidgen of additional protection." Slay! And more members — say, three elected from every existing district in a single ranked-choice vote — would defeat gerrymandering by ensuring mixed-party representation from nigh every corner of the country. Double slay! One bonus reform from Danielle: She explains the many benefits of ditching the party primary system for an "all-comers preliminary" in which every kind of candidate would vie for a spot on the general-election ballot — Democrats, Republicans, third-party competitors, independents. Speaking of independents, contributing columnist and "committed independent" Matt Bai is fed up with how the No Labels group is making his political identity uncool. "By espousing a bunch of mushy, meet-in-the-middle policies," Matt writes, No Labels "advances a dated and uninspiring idea of what a dissenting political movement should be." The independent-ism he subscribes to is much bolder: a willingness to assemble a platform of positions one believes to be right, no matter where they come from or how polarizing they might be. It's by this model that Matt believes in both urgent climate change action and entitlements means testing. Or, to borrow from the Bible: Solomon didn't actually split the baby; he took the time "to discern who had the righteous cause." A rebuttal for Barbie | 
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