I never worry about you. But, sometimes, your excessive heel nipping tends to be a bit tedious. I know you can't help yourself, though, so I generally let it slide.
I get it, its the old way of thinking, two's company but three's a crowd? The fear of not getting preferential treatment and the ability to not be threatened by anyone new to the seen. If the benefit is watering down the two primary parties to reduce their influential power to promote a more fair platform thats just not bank rolled by the two committees & media, that benefits the public with more options and political philosophies. Right now the two control and manipulate. But I guess thats the whole reason to get into politics?
Seems to me that if the public is exposed FAIRLY to more options, with debates & equitable media coverage, it's certainly could.
Sure does if the reason you are registered as na independent, is to give an option. Look at how many voted for Bernie and even Trump. Id say that's viable but still not as powerful (Joe Biden) as two prominent parties with clear advantages for committee platforms, media coverage & limited debate promoted by both parties.
Again, though. Which third party? Showing a graph that support for "a third party" is at an all-time high doesn't mean anything. If all those people are split over 100 different political beliefs and philosophies, no single third party still has any chance of competing. Our current political system will never allow for a competitive third party. If you want more parties to, uh, join the party, you need to change the American political system. Either changing our voting system from "first past the post" to either ranked-choice or run-off voting, or else (and this isn't happening) switching to a parliamentary system.
The Republican and Democrat parties have plenty of fragmentation amongst their own too, sometimes fairly drastic. So yeah independents needs consolidation into something. What's even interesting is I've seen that a lot of, Bernie supporters would abstain from voting rather than vote for Biden. I think personally I would rather have basically no parties. An issue that independents have though is that most are just sick of the politics in general and don't want to align with anyone because they distrust everyone. I'm not sure what's worse, the disorganization of independents or the organization of the two Political machines. For whatever reason, (probably tribalism), the R's and D's have historically put aside their differences internally to vote for and support whoever waves the letter that they've decided they like better.
I get what you are saying, but in todays world with social media and the speed of communication, right wrong or indifferent, I can see more than just a two party plat form making noise. Yes, there numerous other parties that haven't been able to get the support or through the blockade, but just the fact that someone like Trump could come out of now where and beat down the party establishment and that Bernie as not even a dem could compete for their nomination, tells me that political segmentation is indeed going to be a factor more so down the road.
Im predicting a new Cable channel will evolve around a no party, but independent voice, representing the various segments. All that is needed is a larger platform to compete against the two party controlled media debates.
lol...nice try, but no...what you usually doo is whine. ... waiting for your next trollish thread that ends up blowing up in your face...I mean it's only been a day or 2 since your last one...c'mon man
LOL. Nothing has blown up in my face, pal. Oh, are you talking about the Trump drivel from all the lefty minions? Y'right. Wayside material. At any rate, lighten up, Francis. You got Joe. He'll be certain to get you to your long-awaited promised land.
I always put my heart and soul into tilling as I did with all manual labor. The soil had to be perfect when I was done. Also, I loved the smell of fresh tilled soil. Made it the perfect backdrop for the evening BBQ.
@ABM and @yankeesince59 lets chill it out a bit. Many of us here have very different political views. Let's stick to the ideas and not have goes at each other. As crazy as things are and as passionate as we are with our beliefs, we could all do with a little civility towards one another. It goes a long way.
I'd say Bernie and Trump are arguments for why the two party system is sufficiently adaptable to eliminate the need for third parties. If non-party actors can gain the nomination of a major party (or come close twice in the case of Bernie) then it seems that the parties aren't actually controlling everything and forcing their preferred candidates upon the voters. What would a Trump or a Bernie running as a 3rd party candidate add that you don't get with them running within the existing parties? barfo
Actually, it's ABM vs. around 97% of the hard working, left-leaning, Trump-hating masses in here. I'm simply equal opportunity!
Come on ABM, I have never attacked you and I never will. I've also never attacked yankeesince59 and never will. As for your spats, I try to stay out of them because I like both of you. Okay, there, I've admitted to my first and only foible, well that and drinking beer out of the bottle.
Whats is needed, is to get You may be right in that the third party/non party actors may responsible for renegades like Bernie and Trump but my point has to do with the vehicle they used could lead to more qualified candidates and more competition besides just the two. It's a new era for political marketing and strategies. If the two parties have more equitable competition it should drive up the qualified options. Lets say if a few of the dems from the recent primary & a few of the past repub's candidates from the 2016 primary and there was no party afflilation, and they had equal debate's and equal media coverage, and could get on the primary ballets, chances are, you'd have two different people running for president and certainly more qualified/capable, than the two that will run in 2020 Sort of like a four team bracket in the end with the top two running for Pres.
I've been trying to get an answer to that question myself...no luck. http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/cmon-dems.355303/#post-4926033