Obama - real or manufactured

[Pangloss]

I just want the two parties we do have to start behaving like adults and not bickering siblings.

[iNow]

But they started it!

 

 

 

 

 

[Riogho]

If we want real change, we need to change our voting system so that voting for a third party is not wasting a vote.

 

The problem with that is that a law would have to be passed to do this. And who passes the laws? The Bi-partisan congress that doesn't want to have their seat total lowered.

[dichotomy]

If we want real change, we need to change our voting system so that voting for a third party is not wasting a vote.

 

Third and fourth parties go a long way to minimizing the Plutocracies that exist in many nations: "In a plutocracy, power and opportunity are centralized within the affluent social class. The degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low." They may even substantially delay the inevitable fall of nations by getting good numbers of "new blood" into power?

 

The problem with that is that a law would have to be passed to do this. And who passes the laws? The Bi-partisan congress that doesn't want to have their seat total lowered.

 

I find this literally unbelievable. At least in democratic Australia, a party can come from nowhere and get a say in things, if it has the votes behind it. And eventually even get into power, if things go well for them over time.

[Sisyphus]

I find this literally unbelievable. At least in democratic Australia, a party can come from nowhere and get a say in things, if it has the votes behind it. And eventually even get into power, if things go well for them over time.

 

This is technically possible in the United States, too, it's just very unlikely. Our electoral processes (single plurality votes, the electoral college, etc.) are particularly well-suited to keeping two parties in power, and we've been that way so long that voters can't help but think that way (e.g., "a vote not for the lesser of two evils is a vote for the greater"), and our government has long since forgotten how to function any other way.

[Phi for All]

I just want the two parties we do have to start behaving like adults and not bickering siblings.

I'm not sure that's possible anymore. We're like a country that's starving and needs a broad menu to choose from to satisfy everyone's tastes, but the restaurant says they're out of everything but hamburgers and hot dogs, so we're forced to defend our choice of one over the other.

 

People who'd rather be eating something else (and maybe trying a bite of someone else's dish?) have to sit on their own side of the restaurant arguing across the aisle about why they made the right menu choice. And in the kitchen, the cooks are waiving their cleavers around while our burgers and dogs burn, hoping we never remember to ask why they always seem to be out of everything but hot dogs and hamburgers.

 

I admit it. I voted for Obama because he has better buns!