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[Agdune]

Mostly two parties down here, Greens gaining a bit of support though...

Actually, we have 3 big ones, not counting the Greens. Labor, Liberals and Nationals. The Liberals and Nationals have been in a coalition practically forever though, so they're viewed as one party. But they're not, they're quite definitely two. A generally boring-minded pack of accountants and businessmen (Liberals) with a group of crazy reactionary nationalistic xenophobes (Nationals).

Made it pretty ironic that they spent so many months after the last election whining about Labor "not having a mandate to rule because they had to ally themselves with the Greens to get a majority", when the Libs have been by necessity been formally joined at the hip with the Nats forever. In fact, the Liberals themselves, for all their posturing, only get around 35% of the vote on their own...

[Assassinfox]

I admire the guys that invented this system. Peoples vote for poeple they don't trust, who push policies they don't like, to avoid having the other side winning.
These guys were genius.

This.  Seriously. What is wrong with this country?

2008's election was the first presidential election I was old enough to vote in.  I voted for a third party candidate, and everyone berated me for voting for someone who can't win.  Which irritates the hell out of me, because I grew up under the impression that elections were for picking a president that people want.  Not some sort of casino game where you gamble your vote on who you think is going to win so you can have the worthless pleasure of being on "the winning team," or some sort of anti-election where you simply vote against who you don't like.

Honestly, I'd rather secede than move to another country.  Obama's been really keen on comparing himself to Lincoln anyway. 

[King_of_the_weasels]

I wish cloning was made legal again so we could get FDR back.  Not that I was alive at that time, but I know history, and I mean Glenn Beck REAAALLY hates that guy for some reason, so he was obviously amazing just by that.

[Max White]

I wish cloning was made legal again so we could get Hitler back. I missed my chance to kick him in the ball last time, and then he went and killed himself, so now I may never get my chance.

[ChairmanPoo]

I wish cloning was made legal again so I  could clone myself several times. That way we could fight to the death, and the winner would be the new me.

[mainiac]

Which irritates the hell out of me, because I grew up under the impression that elections were for picking a president that people want.

They aren't.  They are about getting the best compromise you can.  Compromise, compromise, compromise has been the point of the system all along.  When people don't accept that, bad things happen.

[GlyphGryph]

Bush vs. Gore vs. Nadar

In a system that doesn't penalize third parties, Gore would have won the 2000 elections by a comfortable margin.  That's not even getting into the party run organizational and fundraising apparatuses that third parties don't have access to.

My point was simply that this is easier to change than you think. There is absolutely no rule that states can't distribute their electoral votes or congressional seats in a different manner. They very much can! They just don't want to. Hell, there's no rule that they can't use approval voting or some other method that better favours third parties. There's nothing in the constitution about any of that at all. All states need to do is pass a regular law (or alter their state consitutions in some case).

[Zangi]

Except, they have no incentive to change and every incentive to keep it the same.

[Bdthemag]

In a democratic nightmare, the republican crime squad is born...

[Zangi]

In a democratic2 party system nightmare, the republicantea party crime squad is born...

I don't know...  Congress is full up on republicans and they arn't fixing anything last I heard...

[Nadaka]

In a democratic2 party system nightmare, the republicantea party crime squad is born...

I don't know...  Congress is full up on republicans and they arn't fixing anything last I heard...

Elections. They are fixing those. Damn things might get a dirty liberal hippy in office one day.

[Urist is dead tome]

So does it actually matter who we vote for anymore?

Yup, If you vote for the republicans you're masochist, if you vote for the democrats you're dumb.

Because who knows more about American politics than a Belgian?

[Alexhans]

So does it actually matter who we vote for anymore?

Yup, If you vote for the republicans you're masochist, if you vote for the democrats you're dumb.

Because who knows more about American politics than a Belgian?

Well, at least the rest of the world gets more reliable news sources about USA than americans get.  Acting condescending might make you look dumb.

[Leafsnail]

Using AV (kindof like an instant runoff) would help third parties a lot.  It'd mean that you could vote for anyone you liked then put one of the main parties as your second choice, which means there'd be no disincentive to vote for an independant.

Of course, getting politicians to enact this would be pretty difficult...

[Urist is dead tome]

Well, at least the rest of the world gets more reliable news sources about USA than americans get.  Acting condescending might make you look dumb.

You have a large amount of experience with news sources all over the world?

And I wasn't being condescending. I was being sarcastic.