4 ms·

Yeah, I can see most people can agree on feeling that the two big parties don't meet their needs, but I highly doubt they agree on what that third party should

by Macha 3y ago

Yeah, I can see most people can agree on feeling that the two big parties don't meet their needs, but I highly doubt they agree on what that third party should be. And if that's the case there's a real "you go first" problem under FPTP for voting for new parties, because otherwise you've just given the established party on the opposite side to your own views an effective boost by switching from your traditional party to one that meets your views better. You really need at least ranked voting and ideally multi-seat PR to get out of that, which is hard as it's against the interests of the two big parties. That said, looking at the UK there does seem to be a renewed interest in moving away from FPTP in their Labour Party despite it being nominally against the parties interests, so maybe there's a way to get movement on that?

InTheArena 3y ago
I want to vote for local representatives and a real person. I don't want to vote for Republican LLC and Democratic INC. Parties have no standing at all within the United States Constitution. The fact that we are talking this way is reflective of the simple fact that the representative democracy (aka Republic) that the United States is has been corrupted by parties that work to their own interest, not the interest of the people. IF you need any evidence of that, you can see it this week when Democrats voted party line with a few Republicans to remove a speaker for no other reason than it humiliated the republican party and the speaker.
- Macha 3y ago
  What democratic nation in the world does not have political parties? It turns out from both a voter and politician perspective, the fact that banding together into parties for predictable ability to deliver results is an advantage seems to be a global phenomenon. FPTP systems are bad for delivering only two parties, but all systems cause parties of some scale.
  - InTheArena 3y ago
    Parties yes - American parties, with monopolistic grab on power and ability to suppress other ideas and parties? No.
- beowulfey 3y ago
  I think your last paragraph is leaving out a lot of context on the way the Speaker had treated Democrats up to that point. It wasn’t really about humiliation — McCarthy refused to work with the Dems and said as much.

by Macha 3y ago

InTheArena 3y ago

I want to vote for local representatives and a real person. I don't want to vote for Republican LLC and Democratic INC. Parties have no standing at all within the United States Constitution. The fact that we are talking this way is reflective of the simple fact that the representative democracy (aka Republic) that the United States is has been corrupted by parties that work to their own interest, not the interest of the people. IF you need any evidence of that, you can see it this week when Democrats voted party line with a few Republicans to remove a speaker for no other reason than it humiliated the republican party and the speaker.

Macha 3y ago
What democratic nation in the world does not have political parties? It turns out from both a voter and politician perspective, the fact that banding together into parties for predictable ability to deliver results is an advantage seems to be a global phenomenon. FPTP systems are bad for delivering only two parties, but all systems cause parties of some scale.
- InTheArena 3y ago
  Parties yes - American parties, with monopolistic grab on power and ability to suppress other ideas and parties? No.
beowulfey 3y ago
I think your last paragraph is leaving out a lot of context on the way the Speaker had treated Democrats up to that point. It wasn’t really about humiliation — McCarthy refused to work with the Dems and said as much.