I was amazed in 2016 and 2020 that third parties couldn't make more of a standing, especially in 2020 when the options were (1) the obnoxious, ineffective guy a lot of people are tired of and (2) the really old guy who no one took seriously as vice president. The LP was was hoping it would break 5% and I think it managed to muster 3%. This year was a little different, because the new party chair Ange McArdy decided to TOUT our potential spoiler ability, invited both parties to the LP convention to see what they'd offer. Trump promised a libertarian in the Cabinet and the pardon of Ross Ulbricht. The DNC didn't bother showing. It definitely helped that the convention nominated someone who NO ONE would take seriously as a candidate. Gary Johnson (2012, 2016) at least had governing experience, and Jo Jorgenson was a woman accomplished in MULTIPLE fields. Not sure that there's a libertarian in the Cabinet: we figured it would be Vivek but rumors are that he and Elon had a falling out over visas and now Vivek is contemplating running for Ohio governor. We got Ross out, though, and Elon's war on the deep state has been quite satisfying -- at least until the Gaza comment. We'll see.
Well, from what I've seen so far from the new 'administration' I think it could charitably be called a "shit show" as we say here.... But I guess we'll see just how deep the shit goes........ Ironically, I'm NOT holding my breath.... [grin]
To add insult to injury, Republicans have conducted a pretty effective smear campaign against ranked choice voting, so we'll never get out of this mess.
There was a big push for European style proportional voting here but, inevitably, that never happened. The 'excuse' was that it would enable 'extreme' parties to get a foothold in parliament. What they really meant is that BOTH parties that we get to choose between would lose power.... If you have a win/loose voting system you're going to get two parties which swap power from time to time... Which leads to rather poor representation and voter apathy... Almost as if it was *designed* that way.
Definitely not a landslide. I saw a report somewhere that if they didn't have the voting system they have, they would not have had a single Republican president for over forty years since the Democratic candidate was always the winner of the "popular vote", i.e. the majority was behind him or her.
Yes, the Electoral College has installed Republican presidents a number of times despite the fact that they lost the popular vote. Its weird - and, naturally, they'll the only country on the planet that has such a system.
Yes, this is accurate. And it's why they are working so hard to keep the Electoral College instead of each person's vote counting individually. Such garbage. We'd be in a much better place if the EC was gone.
13 comments:
I was amazed in 2016 and 2020 that third parties couldn't make more of a standing, especially in 2020 when the options were (1) the obnoxious, ineffective guy a lot of people are tired of and (2) the really old guy who no one took seriously as vice president. The LP was was hoping it would break 5% and I think it managed to muster 3%. This year was a little different, because the new party chair Ange McArdy decided to TOUT our potential spoiler ability, invited both parties to the LP convention to see what they'd offer. Trump promised a libertarian in the Cabinet and the pardon of Ross Ulbricht. The DNC didn't bother showing. It definitely helped that the convention nominated someone who NO ONE would take seriously as a candidate. Gary Johnson (2012, 2016) at least had governing experience, and Jo Jorgenson was a woman accomplished in MULTIPLE fields. Not sure that there's a libertarian in the Cabinet: we figured it would be Vivek but rumors are that he and Elon had a falling out over visas and now Vivek is contemplating running for Ohio governor. We got Ross out, though, and Elon's war on the deep state has been quite satisfying -- at least until the Gaza comment. We'll see.
Well, from what I've seen so far from the new 'administration' I think it could charitably be called a "shit show" as we say here.... But I guess we'll see just how deep the shit goes........ Ironically, I'm NOT holding my breath.... [grin]
To add insult to injury, Republicans have conducted a pretty effective smear campaign against ranked choice voting, so we'll never get out of this mess.
There was a big push for European style proportional voting here but, inevitably, that never happened. The 'excuse' was that it would enable 'extreme' parties to get a foothold in parliament. What they really meant is that BOTH parties that we get to choose between would lose power.... If you have a win/loose voting system you're going to get two parties which swap power from time to time... Which leads to rather poor representation and voter apathy... Almost as if it was *designed* that way.
Yeah, don't ever let his league of minions say that he won anything in a big way. Hopefully midterms start sorting this mess out.
Hopefully....... IF you have midterms of course..... Could they be 'postponed' for an.... 'emergency'....?
Definitely not a landslide. I saw a report somewhere that if they didn't have the voting system they have, they would not have had a single Republican president for over forty years since the Democratic candidate was always the winner of the "popular vote", i.e. the majority was behind him or her.
Yes, the Electoral College has installed Republican presidents a number of times despite the fact that they lost the popular vote. Its weird - and, naturally, they'll the only country on the planet that has such a system.
Yes, this is accurate. And it's why they are working so hard to keep the Electoral College instead of each person's vote counting individually. Such garbage. We'd be in a much better place if the EC was gone.
We are looking more and more like 1933 Germany every single day, so...
Unfortunately, after the elections next week, Germany might also look like 1933 Germany.
I *definitely* have my fingers crossed for you Marianne!
Thanks, we need it.
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