• Why aren't 3rd Parties gaining momentum in the US? NPR looks to the 1992 election for answers
    5 replies, posted
[quote]So many things about this election are unprecedented — and one of the most obvious is how much voters dislike the candidates. By now, everyone knows that this year features the two most unpopular presumptive major-party candidates on record. But in some ways, Americans' dislike of the presidential candidates isn't so remarkable. In fact, a recent report from the Pew Research Center shows that 1992 voters were just as disappointed in their candidate choices, perhaps even more so, than voters are today. That helped open the door to the most successful third-party candidate (by popular vote) in more than 100 years, Ross Perot. This year, despite constant chatter about independent candidates and new interest in the Libertarian and Green parties, no outsider candidate has looked competitive yet (though some polls have shown Libertarian Gary Johnson polling in double-digits). Perot's 1992 run is an excellent foil for showing what is making a third-party run particularly difficult this year.[/quote] [url]http://www.npr.org/2016/07/12/485275509/americans-really-dislike-trump-clinton-so-why-arent-third-parties-doing-better[/url] Snippet here is just the opening to the article, click the link to read the actual comparisons.
Surprise surprise, the real answer to why independents can't win is because we aren't a popular vote we are an electoral vote with winner take all ballots in 49 of 50 states
Presidential systems and first-past-the-post systems both favour two party systems.
Because third parties aren't worth voting for, and not necessarily just because of tactical voting either. With the Green Party, it's the case that not just the Democrats but even the Republicans (seriously, there's a faction of them in the Republican Party) have green platforms in their parties. Why vote for super-green policies and split the vote, when you can safely vote for moderate green policies? With the Libertarian Party, there's already a libertarian faction in the Republican Party anyways. Not just the Tea Party though; there's of course the Ron Paul kind of libertarians in the Republican Party. A lot of people seem to complain about the two-party system in America, but when you realise that each party are broad camps, it's really not that bad at all. Minor parties barely achieve any success in Australia for the same reasons, even though we have instant-runoff voting (note: IRV doesn't help them get elected any better than FPTP does). Most of the minor parties are nutters like Citizen's Electoral Council (conspiracy theorists), Health Australia Party (herbal medicine advocates), Socialist Alternative (wankstains) and Family First (hardcore christians) etc.
[quote]Pew also finds that the majority of Trump supporters (55 percent) are voting against Clinton. And about equal shares of Clinton supporters are voting against Trump (50 percent), versus 48 percent voting for her, according to Pew's data.[/quote] This election is a clusterfuck It's not about who wins, but rather who loses [editline].[/editline] But regardless of who wins, everyone else loses
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.