Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Ted Cruz

7 (6.5%)

Rick Santorum

16 (14.8%)

Michelle Bachmann

13 (12%)

Chris Christie

23 (21.3%)

Rand Paul

49 (45.4%)

Total Members Voted: 107

[smjjames]

UK three party system is more a quirk of history, with party infighting, war, the rise of the labour movement and universal suffrage all playing their part. But you can basically summarise it as the national collapse of the Liberal party and rise of Labour, with the Liberals refusing to die entirely. Most constituencies in the UK remained two-party, but they pick two of the three big parties based on local ideology. Lab/Lib or Lib/Con seats are common enough to be the norm in some regions, despite the national split still being Lab/Con.

I'd be interested to see a FPTP system where one party completely collapsed and was replaced entirely by a new party, without any remnants of a third party in the mix.

According to the diagram back a bit, didn't that happen back in the 1820s? Also theres the predecessors to the Republican party. Though it was probably less a collapse than an evolution.

[RedKing]

Here's the FULL version of that chart.

Which makes it pretty clear that after the 1930s, third parties cease to have any real relevance in the American political system.

And with the exception of Henry Wallace in the 1948 election, the notable attempts at third-party relevance have been from the right (Dixiecrat, American Independent, Reform, Libertarian).
Yes, you can argue the Greens had relevance in 2000. I've never bought that because the margin of "victory" for Bush was so low that you could conceivably blame a host of minor third-parties.

[10ebbor10]

Well, third parties can have a relevance in a two-party system. It just needs to be dominated by those 2 parties.

In fact, a critical flaw of the FPTP system is that the introduction of a third party will result in the loss of the party it is most similar too. Ie, the creation of, say, a Split democrat party will result in a republican victory.

[misko27]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact

Exactly. This actually not only fails to disprove my point, but in fact is the exact reason I hold this belief. For more information, here's an article by none other then Nate Silver.

Anyway the Senator from Mississippi, Ted Cochran, has succeeded in defeating Chris McDaniels in his Republican primary run-off, using the unprecedented strategy of relying on blacks and democrats. Obviously McDaniels is upset.

[GrizzlyAdamz]

Heh, problem with instant-runoff though, it'd elect the centrist candidate every time. 2-party system becomes a one-party system, no?
May not be a bad thing as far as forming a functional government goes, but proportionality is better for congress & it won't exactly solve the '60% of the country not represented by the presidential candidates' problem.

Ha! @Cochran. Isn't he the 'grew up doing indecent things to animals' guy?

[GlyphGryph]

Anyway the Senator from Mississippi, Ted Cochran, has succeeded in defeating Chris McDaniels in his Republican primary run-off, using the unprecedented strategy of relying on blacks and democrats. Obviously McDaniels is upset.

He was only like 1% away from avoiding a run-off completely, wasn't he? That's gotta sting!

[palsch]

According to the diagram back a bit, didn't that happen back in the 1820s? Also theres the predecessors to the Republican party. Though it was probably less a collapse than an evolution.

I'll admit my American history isn't the strongest, but I'd always seen the First Party System as more of an extension of the debates surrounding the founding of the nation than a genuine and fully developed party system. It's worth noting that it's very hard to pin down when the Democratic-Republican party was even founded, and the Federalist party was generally opposed to party politics at all (see Washington).

Heh, problem with instant-runoff though, it'd elect the centrist candidate every time. 2-party system becomes a one-party system, no?

Not really.

Let's say you have three candidates, Left, Right and Centre. Voters tend to be split 35/35/30 in their first preferences. Both Left and Right prefer a Centrist over the opposite while Centrists tend to be split depending on the conditions surrounding the election.

Because the Centre candidate will have the least votes to start with they will be first eliminated, with the split of their voter's second preferences deciding which of the other two win.

You only see Centrists winning a majority of the time when they are taking more votes in the first round than one of the parties on the wings (when they still represent the preferences of a majority of the population), or if there are multiple centrist parties soaking up the votes as other parties get eliminated.

[Descan]

Otherwise I think the only way for a centrist party to win would be if people, like a LOT of people, thought you had to put "who you think is going to win" as your first vote, instead of "who do you want to win". Which would be insane.

[Criptfeind]

Hell, that's how I vote. I hate to be on the losing team.

[GavJ]

More free booze when you crash winners' parties on election night that way.

[palsch]

Completely irrelevant, but this video just popped up again. Had completely forgotten about it.

[FearfulJesuit]

500 page get!

Meanwhile, in my adopted state of Oklahoma: how near is the Singularity? One candidate for Congress in our third district has a shocking answer.

I will NEVER use Artificial Intelligence look alike to voice what

The Representative’s Office is doing nor own a robot look alike.

The World knows the truth, and We must always share the truth. 

Plus, his website layout is reminiscent of Time Cube. What's not to love?

[edit: never mind, seems the incumbent won the primary.]

[MetalSlimeHunt]

He's totally an AI.

[Sheb]

Rep. Frank Lucas, and a few other Oklahoma and other States’ Congressional Members were depicted as being executed by The World Court on or about Jan. 11, 2011 in Southern Ukraine.

Is this guy for real? :p

[XXSockXX]

Rep. Frank Lucas, and a few other Oklahoma and other States’ Congressional Members were depicted as being executed by The World Court on or about Jan. 11, 2011 in Southern Ukraine.

Is this guy for real? :p

I really hope so:

As your Ambassador, Hon. Timothy Ray Murray, for The People of The United States, I have:

 

·        *  Requested and obtained in 2013, Protection from partial or whole life placement on Starship without the knowledge and or will of any person(s) on Earth or in Space, and the storage of partial human size life on Earth or in this Solar system. This matter is sealed with The People, The U.S. President, and The U.S. Supreme Court.
.....
*   Requested and obtained removal, from humans, of an illegal
de-human chip from persons abroad and in armed forces use. Helped block the 7th day Legislation in the ‘70’s that would put the 666 de-human chip in every person on earth. In prevention of the fore-mentioned, it was sealed with The People, The U.S. President, and The U.S. Supreme Court at that time and since that time.