politics
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Any democracy based on FPTP voting will trend rightward. It's a fundamental flaw in the voting system from a game theory perspective. The dynamics of a two party system will always support a good cop/bad cop dominant strategy (think of spoiler candidates, and how we always are faced with the prospect of voting against a bad candidate rather than for a preferable one). Good candidates exist, but our preferences are not a priority inherent to the design of the system.
We would do better with approval voting or Concorcet, but the only way to change the voting system is to get buy-in from the parties to whom it would be certainly fatal.
Except American democracy has existed for longer than this issue...
FDR won in a two party system, sure, the parties instituted term limits to get rid of him, but he won in FPTP.
But the reason both parties drift right is because of the neoliberal movement that's only been around 30 years.
It's been working out terribly, but party leadership doesn't care because there's more money in being rightwing
Dark money out of politics would alleviate a lot of the issues we've been seeing. The voting system is still the game we have to play if we want democracy, and badly designed games are only fun for the winners. An approval vote would get us more broad consensus in leadership, and a return to government based on a shared vision of society, rather than a Congress perpetually locked in a darkly comedic reimagining of the French National Assembly.
But republicans will always be against that, and so will neoliberals.
Doesn't mean we can't do it, but we need to wrest control of the Dem party from neoliberals, and primary a bunch of incumbent Dems first.
It's like climate change, it's not a quick fix, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be trying immediately, just that we're not going to see noticeable results for a long time.
Which is why I feel like I'm insane no one else is losing their shit that NH got their primary taken away for a law only state republicans could have changed. The DNC told NH Dems if they didn't violate state law, they didn't get primary delegates. And then followed thru.
It's not a coincidence NH has been voting progressive in primaries over the party pick.
If they did it this year, what's stopping them from doing it in 2028?
Without a primary, voters have zero say. And legally the DNC can do whatever they want in a primary, even outright ignoring the result.
If we lose the Dem party, we're all fucked.
The party wanted to punish New Hampshire and reward South Carolina because the former went for Sanders and the latter proved pivotal for Biden in 2020.
You don't sound crazy to me at all. The only part where I differ is that I lost hope a few years ago and emigrated. My family was only there for a generation and it hasn't worked out. I still follow US politics because it's all I know. Every time I try to learn UK politics I get uncanny valley vibes.
I left to Germany and uncanny valley is a perfect way to describe it. 98% of the politics are so much easier to handle than American politics, because people are working off of a much higher floor. 2% of politics are fucking terrifying in a very different way. Plus, nuclear and homeopathy are Germany’s southern baptists: it’s hard to understand if you’re not from here and leads to mostly super backward laws, but it’s a weirdly deeply rooted part of the culture.
But the longer I’m here, the less I can understand American politics. Like, how can ~15 states decide to take money for food out of their children’s mouths? What is the actual point of a nation, if not mutual support, especially for children? I used to think that there was a lot of brainwashing and misinformation, but I’m starting to think nobody needs to be tricked into supporting awful causes anymore.
Not anymore. America's social fabric has been destroyed and not enough people have a shared vision of the society they want to live in.
And the people currently complaining are either shills or weren't willing to do the required hard work when the time came.
Why don't the Republicans try to move left? Who are the right wingers going to vote for if they do and try and take some of the moderates from the Democrats?