Russia hasn't changed

[makingmusic476]

the2real4mafol said:

makingmusic476 said:

the2real4mafol said:

HesAPooka said:

the2real4mafol said:

Kasz216 said:
Yeah. Heard about that two days ago.

Really sucks.


Also, it's not so much that Russia hasn't changed.

So much as Russia has backslided back into awfulness.

Yeah definitely, maybe Russia will never be democratic have the illusion of democracy like the west. Putin's a dick 

Fixed/

What would you say Democracy is then, if the west doesn't have it?

I would argue different countries in the West have attained varying degrees of it.

A First Past the Post voting system that leads to our only viable choices for candidates coming from two parties that properly represent a tiny sliver of the actual populace isn't all that democratic.

We have the ability to vote out the guy that's fucking up assuming we like the alternative better, but that's it.  Anything beyond that is made unttenable by the spoiler effect.

We need to implement an alternative voting system for the presidency and senate and a proportional system in each state for selecting the house representatives they send to congress for our country to really approach true representation.  I'd get rid of the electoral college (popular vote picks the President) and make all campaigning publicly funded with private contributions outlawed to further that aim.

yeah i hate FPTP, it's a crap system. In the UK, we had a chance to change the system (referendum in 2010), but we sad no. idiot public!!

but i really don't see how a AV system would benefit the USA, ain't the democrats and republicans far too big now, that even under AV, libertarians or who ever else, would still struggle to become elected?

but i agree with you on the last point, private contributions for campaigning, just corrupt the candidate. maybe that's why Mitt Romney is so clueless

Proportional representation would be at the heart of any changes to our electoral system.  When moving to a proportional sysem, some voters in, say, Califronia would be more likely to vote Green over Democrat, and voters in a place like Louisiana may vote Libertarian as opposed to Republican.  Right now in Louisiana, Republicans generally take 60% of the vote in statewide elections, but take 5/6 congressional districts due to gerrymandering.  Under a proportional system where people aren't afraid to vote for third parties because it may help an opposing party win within their district, you may see a situation in which Republicans land three seats, Democrats land 2, and Libertarians land 1.  Suddenly voters of each affiliation within that state are more properly represented, instead of almost the entire state being represented by Republicans.

Once you start seeing third parties in Congress, that leaves open the possibility of one of the more popular third party candidates running for the Presidency.  At that point it's crucial for the AV to allow people to vote for their preferred third party candidate with their major party candidate as a back up.  Third parties will start small, maybe getting 10-15% of the vote, but if that party's ideals grow in popularity over time, it could eventually become a major party alonngside the oother parties, thus winning a presidential election.