American Political Parties

[jerryfmcompushaft]

Is America ready for a third major political party?

[Swampy]

I would say no. Canada has parties that come up and replace the old, but, in this case, I would just reform the GOP from within.

[Sir John]

IMHO the 3 party situation is a BAD idea!

We have 2 main parties and the third is the 'Greens'. They are (usually) a minor force in the lower house - Reps) , but they hold the balance of power in the Senate.

This gives them enormous power to disrupt and hold the other parties to ransom and creates a chaotic government on many occasions.

The Greens are "watermelons" - green on the outside and red underneath - VERY RED!!!!

Our governing party is socialist, and even they cannot govern effectively brecause they are not communist enough for the Greens.


Don't go there!



SJ

[Swampy]

But Australia, like Canada, is a parliamentary system - the US doesn't have that kind of problem. That said, Congress has still managed to engage in gridlock without the shenanigans of the Westminster system of government.

[Sir John]

Swampy,

I cannot see much difference between the US Congress and the Westminster System,

Both have organised power blocks arranaged as political parties, and they campaign and get elected as such. The end result is a bunch of people with aligned views, Democrats vs Republicans.

If the 'Tea Party ever gets a foothold across America, and the US has a voting system that gets them a bunch of seats and maybe the balance of power, you will see the disadvantages very quickly.


JMO



SJ

[tim]

I think we are extremely lucky in that somehow we have kept to a two main party system. Three main parties would produce the so-called "voter's paradoxs" -- wherein the person (or issue) that wins can be disliked around two-to-one. E.g., consider an election with 11 voters and three candidates (or issues), D, R, and L, where the distribution of preferences is as follows:

1) D D D D D D R R R R R

2) R R R R R R L L L L L

3) L L L L L L L D D D D D

Under our present voting system only line 1 is considered and D would win by a simple majority. But as shown by the full distribution of preferences, lines 1, 2, and 3, R is everyone's 1st or 2nd preference, whereas D is placed 3rd by almost half of the voters.

[Sir John]

tim,

Preferential voting is the bane of our life over here, at least in my view.

The Greens live and die by it, and without it would have NIL influence, and certainly NIL seats! On election day we have the parties distribute 'How To vote' cards which set out the parties preferred list that give th most advantage to that Party.

The voter may of may not follow it, but the alloacation of preferences is vital at the count if a candidate does not get the 50% needed. A candidate with 48% can in fact lose via the allocation of preferences.

I thought the USA did not have preferential voting?



SJ