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Can you give an example of an interest group with over 20% of the US population support but has no representation in government?

mtgx 14y ago
Some of them do have representation, but only under the flag of "Democrat" or "Republican", like the religious evangelists and the "Tea Party" are represented by Republicas, unions and Hollywood by Democrats, and so on. It's close to impossible to form a movement around a 3rd party, that can actually get in the Government.
- philwelch 14y ago
  In some countries, several parties get elected to office and form a coalition to govern together. In America, the coalitions are formed before the election inside the party itself, and some factions can even switch parties. For instance, after LBJ signed civil rights legislation, the segregationists switched to the Republican Party.
- Androsynth 14y ago
  In American politics, the goal of third parties is often not to get elected themselves (because as others have pointed out, thats hard) but to push the issue on the two main parties.
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jellicle 14y ago
Anybody against copyright. Anybody against government torture. Anyone against war. Anyone against more bailouts for bankers. Anyone against maximizing executive power in the office of the Presidency. These are all positions supported firmly by both the Republican and Democratic Party that have a large percentage of the population opposed to them. In a proportional representation system, we would have people in government that supported the issues above. Not a majority, necessarily; but more than the 0% of support that exists now in government (well, Bernie Sanders). Suppose the Occupy movement was running a slate of candidates for Congress, and that Congress was elected proportionally - your party gets 22% of the votes, you get 22% of the seats. What percentage of seats do you think would be occupied by Republicans and Democrats after the next election?
- chrischen 14y ago
  Really, 0% of people in Congress support any of those issues? I think at least part of it can be explained away by the representation system. Only so many issues are important enough to have the representatives represent us for.

mtgx 14y ago

Some of them do have representation, but only under the flag of "Democrat" or "Republican", like the religious evangelists and the "Tea Party" are represented by Republicas, unions and Hollywood by Democrats, and so on. It's close to impossible to form a movement around a 3rd party, that can actually get in the Government.

philwelch 14y ago
In some countries, several parties get elected to office and form a coalition to govern together. In America, the coalitions are formed before the election inside the party itself, and some factions can even switch parties. For instance, after LBJ signed civil rights legislation, the segregationists switched to the Republican Party.
Androsynth 14y ago
In American politics, the goal of third parties is often not to get elected themselves (because as others have pointed out, thats hard) but to push the issue on the two main parties.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

jellicle 14y ago

Anybody against copyright. Anybody against government torture. Anyone against war. Anyone against more bailouts for bankers. Anyone against maximizing executive power in the office of the Presidency. These are all positions supported firmly by both the Republican and Democratic Party that have a large percentage of the population opposed to them. In a proportional representation system, we would have people in government that supported the issues above. Not a majority, necessarily; but more than the 0% of support that exists now in government (well, Bernie Sanders). Suppose the Occupy movement was running a slate of candidates for Congress, and that Congress was elected proportionally - your party gets 22% of the votes, you get 22% of the seats. What percentage of seats do you think would be occupied by Republicans and Democrats after the next election?

chrischen 14y ago
Really, 0% of people in Congress support any of those issues? I think at least part of it can be explained away by the representation system. Only so many issues are important enough to have the representatives represent us for.