this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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[–] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 63 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

3rd party voters didn't swing a single swing state. That is a demonstrable fact. It's time to stop punching down.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 1 points 40 minutes ago

In 2000 they 100% did and we're still paying for that shit.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world -2 points 7 hours ago

I'm gonna love it when all your guys excuses run out and you're finally going to have to answer to yourselves.

I won't care then though. I'll probably be in a camp somewhere. but I'll be thinking of you all 😶 alot.

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 51 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (3 children)

People will, in a single breath, tell people to exercise their right to vote in democracy and also that voting for the person/party that best represents them is wrong if it's not a Big Party.

[–] kernelle@lemmy.world 18 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Usually in a democracy the people are represented by parties which they align most with. In my country I can vote for one of seven, which get proportionally represented by a number of seats in parliament. The winning party rarely has more than 50% of the vote, if they do, all the losing parties will become the opposition, and if they don't they have to combine with another party to have at least 50% of the votes. This assures that the winning party or coalition still has to negotiate their position and decisions every single day. If one party would want the power the current administration in the US has they would probably need 80 or 90% of the votes.

Is it complicated? Yes. Does it make sure the people are represented? Also yes.

In the US if a state votes 51% one way, 100% of the electoral votes go to that party, causing a reality where a party could get less than a majority vote and still win. This alone is proof that the people are not fairly represented and isn't a fair democracy. In local elections you'll have a much more nuanced choice but at a federal level it's antiquated to say the least.

I will say that in a fair democracy, you should vote for your representative, in the US you have no such choice. Be it by living in one state counts as more than another, or the fact that a third party has little to no representation post election.

[–] TheObviousSolution@lemm.ee 4 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Just as a side note, those models are not invulnerable to manipulation. In my country it's the same, but the central government is ruling from one of the flimsiest coalition governments, with the same lack of power that goes along that dumbasses still claim they are solely responsible for. The opposition claims they 'won' because they got more votes than any other party (which should have also made it easier for them to form their coalition and they weren't able to) and now it is getting so bad and stupid (and troll factory brigaded) that people getting convinced by the rhetoric are trying to pass off the US electoral system as a success story.

It provides more representation, but it does not provide infallibility. I think we have the technology today to do considerably better than what we had several centuries back - in fact, to a large extent we could be voting ourselves on key issues instead of letting it fall back to representatives and false promises if we wanted to. The biggest problem isn't that people in a democracy aren't on equal grounds when grasping different issues and yet they can be radicalized to vote out of rhetoric more than those who would and should be more informed. I think we could have better democracies if we shifted to meritocracies, where you could vote on issues only if you certify you were more informed and the history, reality, and minutiae that govern those issues through exams. But that would also create a system that could be gamed.

Any system can be corrupt, and in democracies it's not just the political candidates but society as a whole when it becomes complacent, ignorant, yet loud and willing to break the system for those that manipulate then into doing it.

[–] kernelle@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Yea, and I would never claim it's perfect, there are no perfect systems. But one of the most powerful nations being that vulnerable to manipulation is something to witness.

[–] einkorn@feddit.org 25 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

The issue in the US is that it IS against your political interests to vote for anyone but the least bad option.

The first past the post system simply doesn't allow for a diverse political landscape.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah, that's right. You have the freedom to make bad choices and the government can't stop you. But other people can still make fun of you. People calling you dumb because of your bad decisions isn't a violation of your rights.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter who you vote for, just go vote.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 9 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah it does. Don't vote for Nazis

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Corrected. Your vote doesn't count if you vote for Nazis. Don't be a literal Hitler.