4 ms·
The two parties are essentially coalitions. Anecdotally, a recurring theme in conversations I've had while living abroad is the desire to prune or consolidate
by soderfoo 4y ago
The two parties are essentially coalitions.
Anecdotally, a recurring theme in conversations I've had while living abroad is the desire to prune or consolidate some parties.
While both sides in the US have big tents, they are effective in whipping votes when things need to get done.
It also helps that detracting coalition partners can't torpedo their leadership. Historically, factions within a party, like Blue dog dems or Tea partiers, had to wait for an election to litigate their grievances.
- emodendroket 4y agoWell, yes, this was where I was going. The coalition is just formed before the election takes place. I live in a city with "nonpartisan" elections and I feel like it mostly just makes it difficult to understand what candidates in local elections even stand for.
- soderfoo 4y agoAgreed, when I lived in Austin the non partisan elections for city council made me feel ill informed come election day. It just fueled apathy for me: there's only so much research one can do with limited press coverage and personal time constraints. Shrug.