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Republican

5 (6%)

Democrat

8 (9.5%)

Libertarian

11 (13.1%)

Undecided/Independent

38 (45.2%)

Other (Anarchist, Communist, Green, ect.)

22 (26.2%)

Total Members Voted: 84

[DeathsDisciple]

I lean towards some of the third party groups, but I vote for the Democrats (even though I don't particularly like them) because I consider it more important to vote against the Republicans than to vote for my top preference.

I have to disagree. Thought I favor a 3 (or whatever) party system, I beleve in Maximum Freedom-Limited Gov. Prevails. I think the Democrates don't offer that.

[Vector]

All right.

Why do you think all regulation is bad?

[ECrownofFire]

I have to agree with you Bohandas. lesser of two evils. On the other hand, the two party system is largely enforced by people following that exact mentality, or at least so it seems to me.

If we used a different system of voting (like IRV/AV or the Schulze Method), then we'd be all set for third-parties. But the two-party system continues because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Third-parties don't win because nobody votes for them, and nobody votes for them because they don't win, etc.

Also, I'm the Libertarian. It's me.

[Pistolero]

I have to agree with you Bohandas. lesser of two evils. On the other hand, the two party system is largely enforced by people following that exact mentality, or at least so it seems to me.

If we used a different system of voting (like IRV/AV or the Schulze Method), then we'd be all set for third-parties. But the two-party system continues because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Third-parties don't win because nobody votes for them, and nobody votes for them because they don't win, etc.

Also, I'm the Libertarian. It's me.

Not using IRV is corrupt as hell. No wonder you guys distrust your government to represent you. They don't. What is the rationale behind using your current system?

[Bohandas]

I have to agree with you Bohandas. lesser of two evils. On the other hand, the two party system is largely enforced by people following that exact mentality, or at least so it seems to me.

If we used a different system of voting (like IRV/AV or the Schulze Method), then we'd be all set for third-parties. But the two-party system continues because it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Third-parties don't win because nobody votes for them, and nobody votes for them because they don't win, etc.

Also, I'm the Libertarian. It's me.

Not using IRV is corrupt as hell. No wonder you guys distrust your government to represent you. They don't. What is the rationale behind using your current system?

It was designed by a comittee of politicians. Predictably they came up with something mediocre. and don't even get me started on the Electoral College...

[Pistolero]

Why no reform though? Cost would mean one less F22? Old stuff is better because it's older? Too hard to sell to people who don't vote anyway? I don't know much about it but it seems like there's no good reason to avoid moving to IRV voting.

[Criptfeind]

Two things:

1: To change things you have to do something, to keep them the same you don't have to do anything. Thus momentum.

2: The current system keeps the people in power in power. Thus resistance.

So it is like a major league player throwing a ball on earth and me throwing a ball in space.

[Pistolero]

Yeah and I guess since they're not really representative, they don't really desire what's best for the people they're supposed to represent, removing the motivation.

At least here in Australia, even though I disagree with the right (amusingly enough, known as the Liberal party, or rather, the Liberal/National Coalition) on almost every point, it still seems like most of them get into it out of a genuine desire to do what they think is right for the country. Sounds like in the US most of you don't feel that way about your politicians even when you agree with their policies. That's a pretty strong argument that electoral reform is needed, while simultaneously being a reasonable argument for why it will never happen... 

[Criptfeind]

Well. It's not all that bad. The way I personally feel is both sides have good people, but on the right I feel none of the right people have any of the staying power and the leaders are all scum suckers. The left is also mostly bad, but it has some people who really do want to do what is right and have some power. So yeah, pretty bad, but not irredeemable.

[Taricus]

Eh, I do wish that they'd were more in office due to them being idealistic, though that won't happen anytime soon.

And in response to the OP; Leftist authoritarian.

[ECrownofFire]

Pretty much all of the above. People like staying in power. Neither party is going to vote for IRV or any other non-majority method because it takes them out of power.

And there are idiots on both sides of the Democrats and Republicans. Gary Johnson is a cool Republican, for example. Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry... not so much.

[Dsarker]

All you have to do is get a secret confederation of people elected into power for the sole purpose of revising this law. Just need people trustworthy enough....good luck with that.

[Pistolero]

Isn't Gary Johnson Governer Veto? You guys really are crazy over there if you think you need to cut government services. You have the worst government services in the industrialised world and all the problems that go along with that, yet you think government needs to be smaller. You spend more on prisons and police than education and wonder why your crime rate is obscene, you spend more of your discretionary budget on the military than everything else put together and wonder why the world distrusts you, where is the logic?

You pay less tax as a % of GDP than most of the industrialised world, yet spend more on the military, again as a % of GDP, than anywhere else, and you want to fund it by cutting government services that maintain a stable society. I gotta say, from the outside, it looks insane. How did they put it on that talk show in the UK? Something like: "You have the Democrats, who stand to the right of every government in the world, and Republicans, who are just insane." Now you have the Tea Party because Republicans aren't crazy enough?

Your government is tiny. It already fails to provide all of the people it represents with the basic human rights that the rest of us take for granted, but apparently it still isn't Somalian enough for you guys.

[Bohandas]

All you have to do is get a secret confederation of people elected into power for the sole purpose of revising this law. Just need people trustworthy enough....good luck with that.

Trustworthy enough or spiteful enough. While it indeed probably would be nearly impossible to find a significant number of honest people who would go along with this idea out of a genuine altruistic desire for reform, it would probably be (SLIGHTLY) easier to find people who would go along with such a  plan out of spite for the democrats and republicans.

[ECrownofFire]

Isn't Gary Johnson Governer Veto? You guys really are crazy over there if you think you need to cut government services. You have the worst government services in the industrialised world and all the problems that go along with that, yet you think government needs to be smaller. You spend more on prisons and police than education and wonder why your crime rate is obscene, you spend more on the military than everything else put together and wonder why the world distrusts you, where is the logic?

That's the general position of Libertarians, actually. A good half of US "criminals" in prison are in there only for drug-related crimes. Legalize drugs, and we have smaller prisons and no more overcrowding. Same goes for prostitution, gambling, etc. Also, we need to cut the military, seriously.

You pay less tax as a % of GDP than most of the industrialised world, yet spend more on the military, again as a % of GDP, than anywhere else, and you want to fund it by cutting government services that maintain a stable society. I gotta say, from the outside, it looks insane. How did they put it on that talk show in the UK? Something like: "You have the Democrats, who stand to the right of every government in the world, and Republicans, who are just insane." Now you have the Tea Party because Republicans aren't crazy enough?

Once again, we want to cut the military.

Your government is tiny. It already fails to provide all of the people it represents with the basic human rights that the rest of us take for granted, but apparently it still isn't Somalian enough for you guys.

Government doesn't "provide" rights. People have them by default. Government only needs to exist to defend rights and its people.