• chaogomu@lemmy.world
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    13 days ago

    Part of the problem is that you literally cannot build up a third party under First Past the Post voting.

    The thing is, the current most popular alternative voting system, RCV is just as bad for third parties.

    RCV was first invented in the 1780s by the Marquis de Condorcet, under the name Instant Runoff. He wrote about it, mostly to highlight it’s problems.

    Like the fact that under IRV the majority preferred candidate can easily lose the election.

    And that’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to flaws in IRV.

    Thankfully it’s been over 200 years since then, and better voting systems have been designed.

    STAR is as close to the magical best system designed to date.

    If we had STAR for all elections, plus voting day as a national holiday, we’d be in a vastly better place.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
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      12 days ago

      You’re almost right. The stable situation under FPTP is two big parties. But if one collapses, it won’t necessarily be revived, it can also be replaced. There might be a period where the party on the way out drains votes from the newcomer, but things can change quickly as well.

    • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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      13 days ago

      All this is moot. There is no party that will be able to wrest power away from the GOP come January. Yet still there will be fools putting all their hopes in the effectively powerless DNC.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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        13 days ago

        Yeah, we’re coming into a pretty horrible timeline. I’d have preferred the one where the Brooks Brothers Riot failed. But that ship has long sailed.

        This timeline is going to be an authoritarian nightmare with random high points where some rich asshole is murked by an Adjustor copycat.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
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        12 days ago

        Consider the possibility that resistance against fascism (and other totalitarians) never happens through established parties. The fascists are like termites: the edifice already has to be rotten before they can get established. Where dictators and illegitimate regimes are forced out, it has involved people getting out in the street. Established parties never lead, they only follow.