It's more like a school shooter whom Republicans refuse to do anything about in regards to restricting access to arms nearly killed their presidential candidate.
What if the yanks had more than 2 parties, maybe it would be great.
Before anyone says anything, yes i know that other parties can exist but they dont do really anything.
We're often lucky to have more than one party. States like Texas and Florida are so heavily gerrymandered that supermajorities for the prevailing party are practically assured. The Dems form a rump of opposition in these states, while Greens and Libertarians are barely an afterthought.
i know that other parties can exist but they dont do really anything.
Constituencies in Europe are significantly smaller and more regionally distinct. Hard to have a Scottish New Labor Party or a French Polynesia Party when our states are dominated by constituencies that moved in barely a generation ago. By all rights we should have a "Texas Party" and a "California Party". But its worth noting that the modern Texas GOP was built up practically brick-by-brick through George HW Bush and the Standard Oil company, originally based out in NY/NJ/CT. Dallas, Houston, and Austin are dominated by families of east coast Republicans who came spilling in during the 80s/90.
We should probably have a "Christian Democrats" party or a "Tea Party" properly, but the major religious and ideological leaders of the past were fully wedded to the existing post-WW2 partisan establishment. The closest we ever really had to a break-away party in the last half-century was the Jim Crow Segregationists under George Wallace. And that fell apart in the face of Nixon's Southern Strategy simply gobbling up all the Dixiecrats and turning them into modern day Republicans.
What if the yanks had more than 2 parties, maybe it would be great.
Before anyone says anything, yes i know that other parties can exist but they dont do really anything.
That's because the Electoral College says other parties, who will necessarily not get as many votes as the other two, will not get any electoral votes. Most states are winner-take-all. As far as Presidential elections go, that's why there's never a third party winner.
Locally, you're likely to find "Independent" candidates who run without financial support from one of the two flavors of political soda, and occasionally other political organizations as well. Locally (city government, school board, etc.) it's possible. But nationally no party has had the reach or interest from voters to overcome the hurdles to federal election. Many have tried.
Technically we do, but only the Republicans and Democrats are ever given attention in the media so they're the only two parties most people know about before seeing the other options on the ballot. Add to that you get guys like Vermin Supreme as alternative choices, which if you don't know anything about them makes them look even crazier than the two big douchebags you do know about.
Not to mention that third parties CAN’T win with our current system except in extremely unusual circumstances. In order for viable third parties here we have to implement a different voting system like ranked-choice voting. A couple states have done this along with non-partisan redistricting but it’s not enough.
That's because of circumstances beyond the average voters control where the majority of people inevitably votes between 2 parties and a vote for independent gets essentially "counted" but "thrown away" because the pool is less than the other 2 main parties.
In our current voting system "first past the post", It inevitably leads to a 2 party system regardless of if other parties exist.
The only way I see that we can maybe break past this is to band together and convince more than half of one of the major parties to vote independent. It's possible perhaps, but highly unlikely. ( the video kinda covers this as well. )
Or maybe convince the voter base to change voting systems. I personally like the sound of "ranked choice" voting. Granted it doesn't fix everything but it would be alot better than what we have now. And it might give independents a higher chance of possibly winning.
Political parties represent the interests of the wealthy - for a third party in the US to be successful, it would have to cater to a moneyed interest that the current "good cop/bad cop" routine doesn't cater to. As far as I can tell, the capitalist class in the US is perfectly happy with this duopoly - so no third party.
I'm afraid that a third party is no "silver bullet" - here in South Africa, we have a whole bunch of parties, and guess what... they still only end up serving the interests of the wealthy. Our largest two factions of political racketeers are neoliberals that will happily bend over backwards to sell South Africans out to foreign corporations, while the third-largest is literally just a front for a bunch of overmoneyed Zulu royalty - no surprises that our voter apathy is even worse than in the US.
Fascists painted red prefer to pretend that both are the same, because they don't actually give a fuck about any of the things they claim are important to them, except 'owning the libs'.
You know, not unlike the fascists using an elephant as their logo.
Democrats are never going to codify Roe. Want to know how I know? Because on June 25th 2022 they controlled the presidency, the senate, and the house and Roe still isn't codified. They'll never say it out loud, but the democratic party is happy Roe was overturned because now they get to use it as a fundraising issue forever.
Joe Manchin is a coal baron pretending to be a Democrat and Kristen Sinema was bought by corporate interests. So Republicans unofficially controlled the Senate. This same bullshit gets trotted out every election.
The Senate is stacked against Democrats because it favors low population states. On top of that, there is a filibuster rule that makes most things take 60 votes to get passed. To get anything done, senators have to get rid of the filibuster for whatever they are trying to do, which requires a majority.
Democrats would much rather run on having codifying Roe v Wade. But their party is controlled by and full of neo-liberals who cling to institutional norms to their own detriment. There is not a conspiracy, just minority rule baked into our democracy, and ineffectual and flawed neo-liberal ideology entrenched in the minds of Democrats. edit: typo
Manchin and Sinema are like schrodinger's democrats. They're not real democrats, but you better shut the fuck up and vote blue not matter who or some shit.
Democrats are never going to codify Roe. Want to know how I know? Because on June 25th 2022 they controlled the presidency, the senate, and the house and Roe still isn't codified.
Firstly, the former is not a function of the latter. So it’s not so much “you know” as “making up a reason”.
Secondly, passing a federal law is not like getting a Coke from the vending machine.
Thirdly, this is a common strawman argument to pretend Democrats deliberately don’t care about liberal causes and it’s bullshit. A right-wing talking point. “Clinton had people murdered y’know.” Like that.
Secondly, passing a federal law is not like getting a Coke from the vending machine.
No shit. Passing federal legislation is hard. But that's literally their job and why we elected them. "The democratic party not doing what we elected them to do when they have a majority in both chambers and the presidency." is not the winning argument you think it is.
Do they, though? It's not like they haven't had the opportunity to do something, anything by now, and waving abortion in women's faces is really good for motivating donors...
FFS this reads like russian disinfo. Yes. They do want that. And yes, they'll get it done now that the SCOTUS has well and truly fucked us all such that states are criminalizing women's health.
Could they have done it before???? Sure. What would you like to give up for it. Environment? Education? Health? Spending? Name the issue you will kill for it.
"DuMmYCrAtS wOnT LeGaLizE AbOrTiOn BeCAuSe ThEy MakE MoNey On iT" is a cheap and low-effort right-wing talking point. The "left" loves it for what should be obvious reasons.
Could they have done it before??? Sure. What would you like to give up for it. Environment? Education? Health? Spending? Name the issue you will kill for it.
Seeing as the Dems have already given up basically all of these issues, I fail to see what would be changed if they had demanded to codify Roe. And even without Congress, there are other paths to the same goal - withold highway funding, put clinics on federal land, pack the Court - but the simple fact is that Biden himself is anti-abortion, which is why he bristles at his administration doing anything to provide access to care to women in red states.
Until the current court started trashing precedent there was little to no reason to prioritize a codification of reproductive rights. Since roe v. wade fell there's been at least three attempts to restore reproductive rights and all were blocked by Republicans.
Until the current court started trashing precedent there was little to no reason to prioritize a codification of reproductive rights
This shows how ignorant you are on the issue. States had been fucking around with abortion clinic restrictions that made them effectively impossible to get for years before the current court. One of Obama's campaign promises was to codify Roe into law way back in 2008.
Doesn't they currently have the power? Democrats have had tons of opportunities to make sure republicans could not remove them. Why do you think it will be different this time?
A vocal minority of "pro-life" Dems were openly hostile to enshrining abortion rights into law under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009. Then a handful of "pro-life" Dem Senators killed an attempt to codify the tenants of Roe v Wade into law in 2017. Finally, the current President has refused any effort to add more justices to the SCOTUS in order to marginalize the sitting Conservative Catholic Califate dominating the branch.
So, on at least three notable occasions, yes. Dems have run away from abortion rights as an issue, while winking at their constituents and whispering "We're the only ones who will protect you."
They need to win both houses. Obama was the last one to have that and he put his cards into the ACA. You really seem to only get one these days. As far as most people were concerned Roe v. Wade was settled and a long standing precedent that in no sane world could be overturned. I don't think many people imagined we'd be here today. Let's not blame the victims either. The left didn't do this.
that video never addresses the elephant in the room or talks about the obvious solution: values voting. strategic voting is what leads to the party consolidation, but values voting prevents it.
You can probably add a couple 1,000 of years to how far political comics go back. Graffiti on town wall was a way to pass knowledge and express political opinions during ancient Rome. I'm assuming even before then, but we just have knowledge of it being done then.
Because republicans keep winning local elections and state elections and putting people in the supreme court, because Democrats don't vote in all of the elections.
Hey now, if the Democrats win the presidency and a veto proof majority in both houses then they'll do something and then take that proposal and compromise it with the right.
Anything less than the presidency and veto proof majorities in both houses and they'll get nothing done at all.
So you disagree with Obama that the ruling party should consider all Americans' perspectives when passing legislation?
I can see that, y'know. I'm still mad at Obama for constant capitulation. But I also don't know everything he knew so - maybe it was the right way to do it. I dunno.
Assuming we’re taking about the executive branch, they’ve had two years to work on a fix for the overturn of RvW and they’ve done what exactly? What is another four years going to accomplish?
See they have to blame the Dems for shit the Republicans did because otherwise someone might ask who let the Republicans get into office to do it in the first place.
Wait lol, are you seriously blaming the Democrats for not stopping the Republikkklowns? Holy shit my dude, how was that pitcher of kool aid? This is sad. Would you also argue that if I shot and killed you, it's your fault for not stopping me? I shouldn't go to jail because you had your chance to do something about it and you didn't? Terrible take 1 outta 10.
Yes, the democrats are to blame for not stopping republicans. They barely scraped by in 2020 and have done everything in their power to depress voter turnout since. This same shit happened under Obama. In 2025 they will blame everything except their own failure to do what their voters are telling them to do.
They had major chances to implement left wing policy during Obama's 8 year presidency, but they gave you a right wing healthcare plan courtesy of Mitt Romney (without the public option). He bailed out the banks and kicked 5.2 million families out on the street. He dropped a record number of bombs, used drones more than anyone else.
I didn't criticize biden, I criticized obama, because obama/democrats had the house and senate (fillibuster proof) and still did not deliver codified roe, even though he specifically ran on it...