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Would you blame those that didn't vote in the one-candidate elections held in the Soviet Union? How bout the recent Venezuelan 'elections '? Now ask yourself j

• spangry 11y ago
  Do you truly believe American democracy is so far gone that it's comparable to 'democracy' in the former Soviet Union? For me, I honestly couldn't say with any certainty (I'm not an American). From an outsider's perspective, I don't perceive American elections as being anywhere close to one-candidate Soviet Union elections. Heck, even the 'primaries' process that your major parties use to select presidential nominees seems to create greater scope for the public to influence outcomes. Not that the US system is without its problems: - Administratively, the way US elections are run is worthy of a third world banana republic. I find it astounding that gerrymandering and 'vote caging' are routine occurrences in a country that espouses such a strong belief in democracy. - 'First past the post' is a terrible voting system that guarantees a 2 party system. However, so does Ranked preference/Instant run-off voting (despite what its advocates think). - US public political discourse does seem to be influenced, to a relatively greater degree, by powerful private interests and god knows who else... - [This is a bit controversial] Voluntary voting leads to worse outcomes compared to compulsory voting. The greatest virtue of CV is that politicians are forced to consider minorities or cohorts that would otherwise have low turnout rates under voluntary systems.