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Some may ask why Democrats do not return to positions that appeal to rural voters.
有些人可能會問，為什么民主黨不去吸引農村選民。
Recall how Mr Obama won the presidency opposing gay marriage
回想一下，奧巴馬是如何在反對同性結婚的情況下還贏得總統大選，
and Bill Clinton built a coalition in the centre-ground.
而比爾·克林頓又如何以中立立場建立起聯合政府。
But rancorous political disputes—over guns, abortion and climate change—
但充滿敵意的政治爭端——控槍、墮胎、氣候變化——
split so neatly along urban-rural lines that parties and voters increasingly sort themselves into urban-rural tribes.
卻齊整地將城市和農村割裂開來，以至于越來越多的黨派和選民自動將自己歸于城市或農村陣營。
Gerrymandering and party primaries reward extremists, and ensure that, once elected, they seldom need fear for their jobs.
“杰利蠑螈”（專為某方選舉利益設計的選區劃分方式）和黨內初選都鼓勵極端主義者，并且確保一旦當選，就很少需要為工作憂心。
The incentives to take extreme positions are very powerful.
采取極端立場的動機是非常強的。
Bitter partisanship, ineffective federal government and electoral bias poison politics and are hard to fix.
激烈的黨派之爭、低效的聯邦政府和選舉偏向性毒害了政治，而且很難修復。
Changing the constitution is hard—and rightly so.
修改憲法很困難——也理當如此。
Yet the voting system for Congress is easier to reform than most people realise,
然而，改革投票制度比大多數人想的要更容易，
because the constitution does not stipulate what it should be. Congress last voted to change the rules in 1967.
因為憲法沒有規定投票制度應該是什么樣的。國會上一次投票修改規則是在1967年。
The aim should be to give office-seekers a reason to build bridges with opponents rather than torch them.
這樣做的目的應該是給參選者一個與反對者建立聯系的理由，而不是全盤推翻。
If partisanship declined as a result, so would pressure on voters to stick to their tribe.
如果黨派偏向因此而減少，那么選民各執一派站隊的壓力也同樣會減少。
That could make both parties competitive in rural and urban areas again, helping to restore majority rule.
這樣會讓兩方黨派再次在農村和城市地區競爭，從而幫助恢復多數決定原則。
One option, adopted in Maine this year and already proposed in a bill in Congress for use nationwide,
緬因州今年采用的一種選擇，已經在國會法案中提出以便在全國范圍內采納，
is "ranked-choice voting" (RCV), in which voters list candidates in order of preference.
這就是“排序復選制”（RCV），這個規則規定選民按照喜好列出候選人。
After a first count, the candidate with the least support is eliminated,
在第一輪計票后，獲得支持最少的候選人遭到淘汰，
and his or her ballots are reallocated to those voters'second choice.
而其所獲選票將重新分配給投票給他/她的選民的第二選擇。
This continues until someone has a majority.
如此循環，直到一位候選人得到最多選票。
Candidates need second- and third-choice votes from their rivals'supporters,
候選人需從他們的競爭對手那里爭取第二輪和第三輪的投票，
so they look for common ground with their opponents.
因此候選人會和競爭對手找共同點。
Another option is multi-member districts, which were once commonplace and still exist in the Senate.
另一個選擇是復數選區制，這是曾一度流行、現仍存參議院的制度。
Because they aggregate groups of voters, they make gerrymandering ineffective.
因為選民人數眾多，所以“杰利蠑螈”的策略失效。
Voting reform is not the whole answer to partisanship and built-in bias, but it would help.
改革投票制不會完全改變黨派偏見與其內在偏向性，但會起到一定作用。
It is hard, but not outlandish.
盡管改革步履維艱，但并非天方夜譚。
To maintain the trust of all Americans, the world's oldest constitutional democracy needs to reform itself.
為保有所有美國人的信任，世界上最古老的憲政民主體制需自我革新。
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