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[–] 10 points 2 years ago (4 children)

the dems seem as helpless to run this geriatric conservative as the gop are to prevent an actual fascist dictator wannabe from successfully running for office.

how can both these massive parties suck so fucking hard

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Because voting in the primaries seems anathema to the young progressives who want to change.

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  • [+] 5 points 2 years ago (5 children)
  • [–] 11 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    That's a comforting story but completely unsupported by reality. Look at the exit polls from whatever state you like. The under 30 crowd gets outvoted by 2-1, sometimes a 3-1 margin!

    (This gets even more embarrassing when you realize that while the two groups are about the same size of the electorate, the elderly are less likely to vote Democratic, so as a share of potential Democratic voters the 65+ is beating the brakes off the under 30s.)

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    "Buh... buh... Biden won South Carolina!"

    Yeah... and how did that work out?

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election_in_South_Carolina

    Trump - 1,385,103, 55.11%
    Biden - 1,091,541, 43.43%

    I couldn't believe people using the South Carolina primary as the reason Biden should be the candidate. Since when do we let red states decide who the Democratic candidate should be?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    South Carolina is generally seen to matter to Dems as it's a pretty decent cross section of the Democratic coalition as well as folks they need to woo in competitive states (Colorado, the midwest nowadays, Georgia, North Carolina etc.)

    The idea wasn't that Biden would carry South Carolina for the Dems but that a candidate who wins there has the demographic support crucial to the Democratic route to the presidency.

    For Biden in particular, it was seen as proof that despite being whiter than the driven snow, he could still motivate Black voters (and honestly, that kind of worked out, Georgia was won in large part because Biden racked up absurd totals among Black voters in Clayton, Fulton and DeKalb) while still appealing to more moderate, working class white voters to win back the rust belt states Clinton lost in 2016.

    We obviously don't know how things would have gone with another candidate but the demographic success that Biden enjoyed in S.C was pretty much the success that kept trump out of office this term.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (3 children)
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    i dont... i kinda think were all fucked. the only action possible here is to just keep voting lesser evil.

    i used to hope, but that runs out after the first few decades

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    They way to fix things is voting reform. But it can't be just any reform.

    We have to ditch Ordinal voting systems. Every single one of them leads to some degree of two party dominance, with voters having to prioritize strategy over their own needs, because not doing so means they will be actively punished.

    Cardinal systems are the only way to escape. Strategic voting becomes less necessary and less impactful.

    My current favorite system is STAR. It takes all the great ideas of the best cardinal voting system (Score) and adds in an automatic runoff that greatly reduces the impact of clone candidate attacks.

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    the only voting system i endorse is consent-and-consensus

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (32 children)

    Do you mean something like Approval?

    https://electowiki.org/wiki/Greatest_possible_consensus_winner

    Approval voting guarantees the election of greatest possible consensus winners, when it ask voters "which alternatives do you consent to?"


    Approval would vastly improve things, but has some drawbacks. Score is like Approval, but a bit more so, and then STAR takes Score and adds to it again to be an even better system.

    The systems above all break two party dominance, or rather they make it impossible to enforce two party dominance. Ordinal systems on the other hand, all fall victim to Arrow's theorem, and thus reinforce two-party dominance.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I believe you're under the mistaken impression that u/originalucifer is actually running one or both of these parties.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I never said this nor do I believe it. But engaging in doomscrolling and screaming into the void is not going to do much so I'm looking for ideas. Yes they are all way too old, there's no denying that. The question is: now what?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The Democrats are generally a fairly ineffective ally on good days. The Republicans are an effective enemy every day. It's not an equivocation to say those are both crappy options.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

    Because the electorate is doing little to nothing at the local scale to change voting methodology. Until that happens in a broad fashion, the two parties will continue to be a problem.

    Edit: you can downvote all you want, it doesn't change reality.

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