Ron Paul

[Zakilevo]

Uhhh America needs to pay back its debt? and that is what Ron Paul is suggesting? I mean Obama will increase the debt even further with his Obama care.

[DoctorHarte]

Uhhh America needs to pay back its debt? and that is what Ron Paul is suggesting? I mean Obama will increase the debt even further with his Obama care.

Debt isn't all America needs. I'd rather keep Obama and have large debt than support a Libertarian who thinks that there shouldn't be fire departments, police departments, public transportation, grants for education, unemployment, disability, food stamps, and every other type of government system and assistance that you can think of.

[Zakilevo]

You obviously do not understand his points. Go somewhere else you Obama supporter!

[DoctorHarte]

As I said, I'm voting for the green party.

[Zakilevo]

Uh they have 0 chance of getting elected though. What is the point?

[Sacha]

A wild guess: to not vote for any party you don't agree with?

[Perth]

Uh they have 0 chance of getting elected though. What is the point?

And Ron has about... 10% chance of getting elected? Maybe 25% chance if he in some crazy scenario managed to win the Republican nod. But you're all for him, right?

And, I'm a Paul supporter; and was back in '08 too when his chances were even slimmer.


Don't down other people for supporting third parties or fringe candidates; even if they're weirdos like the Green Party. The country desperately needs exposure to something other than the Democrat/Republican dichotomy who are in all reality basically the same parties give or take a few minor points here or there.

[Zakilevo]

Aren't they suppose to be polar opposite to each other?

[De-Legro]

Aren't they suppose to be polar opposite to each other?

Oh yeah, of course. With that said we can pretty much ignore everything else you have said in this thread.

[Norrel]

Oh yeah, of course. With that said we can pretty much ignore everything else you have said in this thread.

QFT

[Tom]

Aren't they suppose to be polar opposite to each other?

Game theory suggests that the major parties moving closer and closer until they are all but identical is the logical long-term result in any two-party system.

You can construct the argument yourself with a payoff matrix and imagining a time axis. Basically, if they are polar opposites, your payoff in elections as a supporter of either is +1/-1 - depending on who wins. If they become more similar, the payoff shrinks, say to +0.5 / - 0.5 - which gives you the same average, but less risk. Since most humans are naturally risk-averse, this will happen.

[LilWolf]

Outside view on USA politics.

Democrats: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Republicans: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Third parties: Might change things, but the population seems happy enough with their corporate sponsored two party system.

So..elect who you want from Republicans or Democrats, they'll both screw you over anyway.

Also, this.

[Perth]

Aren't they suppose to be polar opposite to each other?

Yeeeaahhh.... is that why the country has progressed down pretty much the same ideological tract for the past century no matter which party was in power?

[Zakilevo]

NDP in Canada just became the opposition party not too long ago. I guess if people are pissed off enough, they will actually vote for a third party. I hope either Republicans became an actual polar opposite of Democrats or some party with a logical sense will be elected.

[Nathan]

Outside view on USA politics.

Democrats: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Republicans: Owned by corporations. They pass laws to help the corporations.
Third parties: Might change things, but the population seems happy enough with their corporate sponsored two party system.

Agreed. Here in the UK we don't get loads of news about the US elections until they happen, but I have seen that both parties are constantly spending money on campaigning with that money coming from corporations and generally making a lot of noise without much backup. I've also seen the Republican candidates seem to be fairly crazy and out of touch: 999 tax plan, moon mining bases, joking about $10k bets, forgetting what their policies are.

Whoever gets elected next year is going to have a tough four years. America seems to be waking up to the fact it isn't the world's greatest super power any more and I doubt it's going to go down well when it's bundled together with debt, the style of public politics over there and general anger about living standards decreasing/not improving greatly for most people.

With regards to polar opposites, the UK seems to go in cycles. Our parties started on the left and right, came into the middle and they're now going back again. Some people might say it's because of how the funding system works here (a small few giving a lot of money to the Conservatives, trade unions giving money to Labour, not many funding the Liberal Democrats). As the for the US, from the outside it seems that the Democrats are just right-of-centre with the Republicans being right (some being far right). Not having lived there myself, I'm not sure how accurate that is as that would imply that there's very little appetite for leftist polices.

I guess if people are pissed off enough, they will actually vote for a third party.

UK's Liberal Democrats. 3rd party, now part of the government at the last election. But now they're really far behind in the polls. However you would be surprised how many people still think otherwise in a First Past the Post system: "why should I vote for [3rd party]? They have no chance of getting into government, so it's a wasted vote". Somewhere with a proportional system (most of Europe), you'll find there isn't a "3rd party" in the sense of "useless party".