To me one of the major problems with the US political landscape is the limitation of having only two parties that are in many ways just two branches of the right wing. A system with much more proportional representation in it would help. At the moment the left wingers have very little alternative to voting for a centre right political group or allow a more right wing group to get into power. This is not a very good choice and it is not surprising that many are less than enthusiastic about it or willing to put their all into the campaign. You only need to see the vitriol the US Green party got for ‘splitting’ the vote to see that something is deeply wrong. On the other side we have rational pragmatic conservatives sharing a bed with ideological fanatics of the religious fundamentalists and neo-liberal free market fantasists. Under PR this moribund system could become dynamic people would have real choice and be able -with conviction - to campaign for what they believed in. Think about it - “Under a pure proportional representation system, if a party won 21 percent of the votes, it would receive 21 percent (at least roughly) of the seats in the legislature; in a first-past-the-post system, a party could receive 21 percent of the votes (or even, theoretically, 49 percent of the votes) and zero seats in the legislature.” Third party (United States) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_party_(United_States) For a time when PR was used in the US try - A Brief History of Proportional Representation in the United States Which tells us - “For example, Barber found that choice voting produced fairer and more proportional representation of political parties. In particular, it eliminated the tendency of winner-take-all systems to exaggerate the seats given to the largest party and to underrepresent the smaller parties. In the election before the adoption of PR in Cincinnati, the Republicans won only 55% of the vote, but received 97% of the seats on the council. In the first PR election, the results were much more proportional, with the Republicans winning 33.3% of the seats based on 27.8% of the vote, and the rival Charter party winning 66.7% of the seats on 63.8% of the vote. Similarly, in the last pre-PR election in New York City, the Democrats won 95.3% of the seats on the Board of Alderman with only 66.5% of the vote. During the use of PR, the Democrats still had a majority of the seats, but it was a much smaller one that reflected more accurately their strength in the electorate. In 1941, proportional representation gave the Democrats 65.5% of the seats on 64% of the vote. Moreover, it also produced representation for the Republicans and three smaller parties in proportion to their voting strength. Similar results occurred in the other PR cities, demonstrating that this system greatly improved the accuracy of partisan representation. Proportional representation also encouraged fairer racial and ethnic representation. It produced the first Irish Catholics elected in Ashtabula, and the first Polish-Americans elected in Toledo. In Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Toledo, African-Americans had never been able to win city office until the coming of PR. Significantly, after these cities abandoned PR, African-Americans again found it almost impossible to get elected. http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/...%20of%20PR.htm Try going to - The Center for Voting and Democracy http://www.fairvote.org/
On the absentee ballots my state hands out, all parties and candidates are arranged with equal typographical hierarchy on the spread sheet. So they appear to all have equal representation without bias. But the thing is the 2 major parties are like major corporations competing against family owned businesses; they have all the funding and complete control of major media stations, and the populace has already identified with their brand loyalty and brand identity with these two parties. My suggestion is to annihilate the 2 parties and divide them into several different smaller parties, thereby giving the bottom-feeding 3rd parties a chance to acquire more popularity and name recognition, and do away with the "a vote for them is a wasted vote" mentality. The only reason people vote 3rd party is because they aren't happy with the popular choices. So make the 2 choices less popular and make it 6 or more popular choices. That way, special interest groups are gonna have to spend a lot more money trying to by off every single candidate to fit their needs.
The US does not have a two-party system. There are more than the two larger, primary parties. The smaller parties are hampered by legislation the dominant parties put into place to keep themselves on top of the game. But the whole thing is making a shift. The democrats have been playing social games that divide people along racial and ethnic lines in ways FDR never considered. But in the last decade they have begun to make a clear, racial shift. And by racial I mean that the democrats are purging white politicians from their ranks at an escalating rate. This is in part due to the advent of identity politics and reached its zenith when Obama used the race card to defeat Hillary in the primaries. Republicans are pretending to care about Hispanic people as they watch their influence evaporate. And this is the real hazard in the US. As the parties turn into Republicans = White and Democrats = Non-white the sheer demographics of the voters will cause the nation to split along racial lines. Once that happens the numerically-superior white Americans will start voting based on race. This is when it will all come to collision. So many seem to have forgotten that more white Americans voted for Obama than black Americans! They are allowing politicians to yank their chain with tales of the return to Jim Crow and other such nonsense. This is the 21st century. It's time to pull together as Americans first. Jal
Changing the system of government is as easy as the majority of the U.S. population wanting it changed. Unfortunately, the majority thinks there is nothing wrong with the way things are right now.
Make people realize that we are all the same. Deep down inside we all have the same basic needs, and mostly similar wants. Unfortunately, in this point in history, we are still in the mindset of divide and conquer. The two party system is a way of making the population accept the same changes every four years. No matter who wins, it's still the same. No solutions, just more bloating. When the entire country realizes that (or a huge majority) then we can all correct the problems.
From my point of view its good because by this competition comes and this make aware party to do beat of good comparable other and this is beneficial for common people.
For an ideal reason, but of course a mean one, just introduce national and religious segregation of regions for various invisible minorities. Ahmedinejad should have been as deliberate and, let's say, philosophical. AHmedinejad, eat your heart out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-xKPQy3iy4"]Alex's Secret Santa (Books Are My Bag) - YouTube
