Leopards Ate My Face

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"I never thought they'd eat MY face!" (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 days ago by Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world

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[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Americans are odd. They complain about "both sides" but a lot of them don't participate in primary elections.

There are definitely problems with the way the parties pick candidates but the primary is by far the more important election for those that consistently vote for the same party.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It's a Charlie Brown and the football situation. You can only fall for the same bait and switch so many times before you just give up. In a democracy it leads to voter apathy. And primaries are poorly run. If it isn't a prominent one, you likely won't find much information on the candidates prior to the primary election, and for the president, they sre pretty much decided by 4th one so if you're state does a later primary, chances are that your preferred candidate has already dropped out by the time you can actually vote for them.

[–] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

To my knowledge Americans have never given Democrats a chance, the Democrats haven't had a majority capable of pushing a bill through without Republican participation since 2008 and Republicans have been remarkably consistent at pulling the party together to stonewall Democrats so they look ineffective.

I mean the Democrats are often ineffective but at least punish them for the failures they make on their own merits, like the recent agreement to reopen the government.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

A big part of the problem is the length of the "primary season" and spreading out votes over the course of several months.

This makes it really hard to sustain a budget, especially for grassroots candidates...but also sets up frontrunners in a big way.

IMO primaries would have a different outcome if they were all held on one day and we limited primary campaign season to like 3 months tops.

I'd say something about superdelegates but the fact is that parties and primaries aren't really a part of the process. People treat the GOP and DNC like they are official government branches when really they are just more like a private club. They let us have a primary. If the bylaws say they can override the primary, that's the bylaws. If people disagree with it, then either the bylaws get changed or a new club gets founded.

The problem, then, is that our voting system ultimately necessitates no more than two major parties. Since the winner is the one with the most votes*, it's very easy for two parties that align on many fronts to actively work against each other...see Ralph Nader in Florida in 2000. And it takes a huge shift to uproot an established party.