this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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The congresswoman quipped that in attempting to avert a shutdown Republicans were “run[ning] around the House like a Roomba, until they found a door that House Democrats opened”

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[–] SaltySalamander@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You realize this country didn't start with Republicans and Democrats as the dominant parties, right?

[–] BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

You realize that this country didn't start with any political parties at all, right? And that Washington tried to warn people against their formation, even as Adams and Jefferson consolidated power?

Like no shit things didn't instantly fall apart the second the Constitution was ratified, there's been 250 years of context, but FPTP is still one of the central causes of the stratification of elected politicians that we see today

[–] jhymesba@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

You do realise that there have only been 6 'systems' in the United States over its 250+ year history, right? And you do realise that the only actual political party changes were the First to Second Party System (in 1828, with the Federalists dying off) and the Second to Third Party System (in 1860, with the Whigs dying off, replaced by the Republicans)? You do realise that the Third to Fourth Party System, the Fourth to Fifth Party System, and the Fifth to Sixth Party System have only been realignments of the two existing parties? You do realise that the last time a non-major-party POTUS candidate won even a single EV was in 1968? You do realise that even Ross Perot couldn't get a single EV in 1996?

You realise that this country has a system in place to prevent voters from causing effective changes? Your vote for your minor party only ensures that you get the major party most opposed to your stances in a FPTP system elected, and you end up getting nothing of what you wanted instead of just something. If you want that fixed, your first step is to get your State to join Maine and Alaska and use Ranked Choice Voting. Your second step is then to get more third party Representatives and Senators in. Then you got to change the Constitution so that the POTUS is directly elected, rather than through the Electoral College, and use RCV nation-wide for that. That's a far better strategy than relying on something that's not happened in the past 160 years. IMNSHO, of course. :)