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the key is the u.s. is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy (only in certain elections). the strategy is to support representatives whose opinion

the key is the u.s. is a representative democracy, not a direct democracy (only in certain elections). the strategy is to support representatives whose opinions you trust and speak persuasively to people to bring them on your side. To do this effectively, you must listen to them and understand their concerns. there is no quick-fix. you must perform this work at a slow and steady pace your entire life, never feeling confident others can handle it (that their angry facebook memes will stop a demagogue).

emodendroket 9y ago
When you're given a choice of two candidates and neither of them represent your interests, and this happens time after time, I think it's fair to question the efficacy of the tack you're proposing.
- clort 9y ago
  In this situation, another person has to put themselves forward as a candidate. The failure of the society is when nobody else does.
  - vertex-four 9y ago
    Then you run into the systemic failures of the current political and electoral systems in the US (and some other countries with electoral systems dating back to a similar period) - that voting for a third-party candidate is to throw away your vote for the most acceptable of the two "provided" candidates, and practically guarantee that the least acceptable wins due to the divide in votes. There are, of course, a variety of electoral systems that allow and encourage third-party candidates to have a chance, but it's very, very hard to change an electoral system that got everyone in the political system where they are, to one which provides them new competition. See parallels with regulatory capture.
zo1 9y ago
As much as I agree that people need to be persistent, steady and patient in their political participation. This doesn't work so long as you're importing foreign-voters en-masse that are largely voting for a specific party, or voting for politicians as a way to reward them for allowing such importation to occur. Or, have some sort of middle ground between the large gap of representative and direct democracy. Sort of what Switzerland is doing whereby any movement can force the government, by virtue of having enough votes, into having a nation-wide referendum. And it has to be binding for the politicians, to the spirit and letter of the referendum results. Unlike what we're seeing in the UK now.

emodendroket 9y ago

When you're given a choice of two candidates and neither of them represent your interests, and this happens time after time, I think it's fair to question the efficacy of the tack you're proposing.

clort 9y ago
In this situation, another person has to put themselves forward as a candidate. The failure of the society is when nobody else does.
- vertex-four 9y ago
  Then you run into the systemic failures of the current political and electoral systems in the US (and some other countries with electoral systems dating back to a similar period) - that voting for a third-party candidate is to throw away your vote for the most acceptable of the two "provided" candidates, and practically guarantee that the least acceptable wins due to the divide in votes. There are, of course, a variety of electoral systems that allow and encourage third-party candidates to have a chance, but it's very, very hard to change an electoral system that got everyone in the political system where they are, to one which provides them new competition. See parallels with regulatory capture.

zo1 9y ago

As much as I agree that people need to be persistent, steady and patient in their political participation. This doesn't work so long as you're importing foreign-voters en-masse that are largely voting for a specific party, or voting for politicians as a way to reward them for allowing such importation to occur. Or, have some sort of middle ground between the large gap of representative and direct democracy. Sort of what Switzerland is doing whereby any movement can force the government, by virtue of having enough votes, into having a nation-wide referendum. And it has to be binding for the politicians, to the spirit and letter of the referendum results. Unlike what we're seeing in the UK now.