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Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by benrl
Voting for the two parties isn't the problem. It's having two parties worth voting FOR that is the problem. After all, Ron Paul was and is an unapologetic Republican and of the Reagan variety. Kennedy was as deep blue Democrat as they came in his day.
I'd HAPPILY vote for either of those men, that represented either of the sides before it all became so extreme on everything that nothing worked anymore. People have to care, first....
Presidential Election Voter Turn Out // All Election Year Turn Out %'s
The Presidential years are bad enough but look...well... At least some people try. Look at the second set of numbers showing the off year........and keep in mind, our lives are run by the little people like City Council, State Representatives and Governors. All kinds of people run in those off years, too.
People have to at least try using the system before declaring it's broken.
Originally posted by benrl
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by benrl
Voting for the two parties isn't the problem. It's having two parties worth voting FOR that is the problem. After all, Ron Paul was and is an unapologetic Republican and of the Reagan variety. Kennedy was as deep blue Democrat as they came in his day.
I'd HAPPILY vote for either of those men, that represented either of the sides before it all became so extreme on everything that nothing worked anymore. People have to care, first....
Presidential Election Voter Turn Out // All Election Year Turn Out %'s
The Presidential years are bad enough but look...well... At least some people try. Look at the second set of numbers showing the off year........and keep in mind, our lives are run by the little people like City Council, State Representatives and Governors. All kinds of people run in those off years, too.
People have to at least try using the system before declaring it's broken.
The two party system is broken, not the election system of a Representative democracy, the parties do not hold the public interest any longer.
In the absence of proper representation from the parties a third party is needed, no where did I advocate changing the systems, just changing dogs in the race.
That is however a big problem the 70% of eligible voters that sit on their ass and do not vote, the end result is the two party pandering to extremest on both ends.
Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by benrl
That's what I mean though. I'm almost 40 and never understood at a functional level, how the system really worked. It took the Ron Paul movement and that whole thing to step out, get the caucus 'training' session by the Paul people, as it happened, and then see it function to understand how it does operate and how easily we COULD change things.
Few, if anyone bothers to show up at a thing like a Caucus.....though that, right there, is where the decisions start that shape everything after. That is also the weakest part of the entire system from the insider's point of view for citizen numbers being the defining factor......and isn't it odd? ...it's the part most obscured and left to mystery for people to wonder about but NOT be a part of. Paul's campaign was the first to even encourage people to learn more than the name of the process......and EVERYONE should know how it works.
The parties suck because people.....regular people....stopped doing anything beyond showing up to punch a ballot once every 2-4 years, and even there, it's as low as 1/3rd and no higher than the 50's for % showing up then.