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Originally Posted by Paul Markham
There are no good options?
Maybe if you voted for the one that doesn't fit into the Dems or Reps candidates you might get some.
I don't know your State so picked one I do know, California. Here's a list of the candidates standing for the Senate in the 2016 election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...6# Candidates Correct me if I'm wrong.
Two parties both of the same ilk dominate American elections. Because you don't bother to vote for anyone else. UK has 5, it allowed the UKIP threat to get the people the vote on Europe, now the DUP have the swaying votes in Parliament, Labour and Tories are both very different parties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ies_in_Germany
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li...ties_in_France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...he_Netherlands
It's because we vote for the outsider, the outsiders stand for elections and sometimes win. You have start voting for the outsiders to get more to stand. The problem is too many Americans only see two candidates so don't vote for either of them.
What's your State, so we can see how many stood for election for local, and national elections. I doubt if the ballot paper only had two names. |
Do a little more reading on that California election. First, there were a ton of declared candidates for the primary, but when it came to election day there were only two options on the ballot and they were both Democrats. Check out this
https://ballotpedia.org/United_State...lifornia,_2016
It shows you who the primary candidates were and then who the final general election candidates were. California also has semi-closed primary elections. In that state different parties choose if they want people registered as independents to be able to vote in their primary. The Democrats allow it, but the Republicans don't. So, if I lived in that state, the only people I could have voted for during the primaries were the Democrats. So, basically, if you are a registered independent in that state you have very little say in who the final candidates on the ballot are and then, in this case, both candidates were Democrats and both were career politicians.
Also, you are correct about people only seeing two names even if there are more on the ballot. At least 25% of the country will vote Democrat no matter who the candidate is and another 25% will vote Republican no matter what. Getting those people to vote for anyone but their party is going to be near impossible.
I hear what you are saying, but the way the system has been built up over the last several decades it will be near impossible to change it without someone or some group making a big splash. It would take someone, say like Mark Cuban or any other billionaire, to run, fund their own campaign and create a new party or not affiliate with any party. If he wins (or even does decenly well) that momentum can be used to win elections at the state and local level. Ross Perot almost did it with his Reform Party, but then he showed himself to be a crazy person and the party was taken over by crazy people.