That's the WSW for you, almost feels like it's only purpose is to disingenuously propel leftist infighting.

People talk about our "two-party system" as if it's written into our Constitution or something. But there's nothing in the document enforcing parties, and in fact it's rather well documented that the Founders weren't that fond of the idea of parties. Washington actually invited some of his political rivals into cabinet positions in his government, and while I'm sure that ultimately made for better policy is also resulted in some well-documented public infighting. Every President since then has identified with some party.

The main reason we have this system is the math of elections. In all but a handful of states that hold runoffs when no candidate reaches 50%, the winner simply needs a plurality of the vote. So in an election with 5 candidates, someone could easily win with 25% of the vote. But In the next election, 2 opposing candidates realize that if their voters worked together, they could achieve 35% in a four-way election. This leads to consolidation until there are only 2 choices left.

If we want to change our party system, we need to change how we vote. Ranked-choice voting is obvious, if we can get people to understand it. (And someone who strenuously objected to ranked-choice voting could still vote for a single major candidate, ignoring the other choices, and have that vote counted the same way it did before.)

Dump: "I wamma be a dictator on day 1 with all the reverence of Kim Jung Un. I hope to do this with the su- suppo- um- help of the very democracy loving Vlad Dr- Putin. Any one who doesnt like it deserves the gulag, or to be thrown to my brown shirted pooed boys. Also queer folk and those with more than one X chromosome are either subhuman, or undeserving of life entirely."

Status Quo Joe: "I want more of the neoliberal policies that put America on the top of the world food chain. I don't mind your being exploited for profit, or the third world, but I also don't mind you thinking for yourself and electing different choices which I and my buyers dont like. Climate change is going to fuck you, and Id feel worse if my backers cared, so how about you save that issue for when you have more of your own in power?"

Lemmy Shills: "omg theyre literally the same. Democracy is dead. America is dead and devoid of culture. Anything American media says must be a lie if its positive, or true if its negative."

And round and round we go!!! This shit stopped being possible to tackle on reddit after u started picking up bans everywhere for going against the narrative on what were once leftist spaces. I hope lemmy fairs better. Dont let the newcomers straying in fall for these incendiary tactics.