Maybe Proportional Representation Isn't The Answer

 One of the great flaws of our democracy is our electoral system that bestows 100% of the seat to someone who wins the most votes not a majority of the votes. (This offer not valid in Maine and Georgia.)

This means that we force our politicians into two large catch-all parties that manage to include Mitt Romney to Lauren Boebert and Joe Manchin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It's weird and frequently it no longer works because there is no real way to cobble together legislation between the Romney-Manchin wings. Maybe they can do some permitting reform and social media regulation this Congress, but I doubt it. It's dysfunctional.

One solution would be to adopt a truly national legislature that is elected via proportional representation. Instead of voting for AOC, you might vote for the American Worker's Party or the Green Party. Whatever percentage of votes that party got, they would get the same number of seats. This way, you would have many different voices being represented and you could get odd coalitions coming together to pass legislation.

Theoretically.

In reality, PR systems tend to produce chaos (except in places like South Africa were one party dominates the electoral landscape). PR parliamentary systems lend themselves to coalition governments that are always on the verge of collapsing.

Which brings me to Israel. Benyamin Netanyahu is a crook, or at least he's pretty damned close to one. Yet, he's the only figure who can hold together a rough coalition of religious and right wing zealots to cobble together a government. So, you have a prime minister who is facing an indictment trying to rewrite the rules of the Israeli constitution regarding judicial independence. 

The country has erupted in outrage and protest. In some ways, this is healthy, as it shows a deep commitment to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. Israelis don't seem to want to let Netanyahu potentially corrupt the courts. 

Netanyahu though, can't back down without fracturing his coalition. Because he's beholden to the worst rightist elements in Israeli politics he has to govern from the far right rather than a theoretical center. 

While Emanuel Macron was able to ride out his controversial measures and the protests that engulfed France, he has the advantage of set term of office. You can't really get rid of him until the next election. Netanyahu could lose a vote of confidence this week and we would have snap elections.

Israel has seemed increasingly ungovernable for many of the same reason the rest of the Western world has seemed ungovernable recently: religious and cultural conservatives - often cloaked in hypernationalism - are pitted against a more secular, culturally pluralistic polity. 

The culture wars are not unique to America. We see them in Brexit, in Israel, in France, in Hungary...really everywhere.

The basic liberal idea of live-and-let-live is under attack from all sides.