The Moderate's Club

[Lemur]

There has been idle talk about proportional voting in the U.S., but it hasn't gotten far. Just as soon as we're done with the metric conversion and the War on Drugs, I'm sure we'll get right on it ...

[Red Harvest]

There has been idle talk about proportional voting in the U.S., but it hasn't gotten far. Just as soon as we're done with the metric conversion and the War on Drugs, I'm sure we'll get right on it ...

Let's not forget that we have had multiple parties in the past. Some were in power for a time, then faded. The republican party split into Teddy Roosevelt's "Progressive" party and the current GOP back in 1912 when the GOP stole the nomination for a 3rd term from Teddy at the convention. Being in the middle the party didn't last long and was absorbed into the moderate sides of both other parties.

The Bull Moose party platform included women's suffrage, a national tariff, child labor laws, old-age pensions, anti-monopoly policies, and other social reforms. I think I would have liked this party...especially when I compare it to the current extreme conservatives who control nearly all of the GOP.

The weakness of many proportional democracies is that they make for somewhat schizophrenic govt. That is probably because of the way the PM is elected in most cases. I don't think they U.S. would have the same stability issue, because of the seperation of the elected executive branch.

The real problem in the U.S. at this time is that it is a large block of conservatives vs. everyone else. The conservatives have taken over the GOP and are rather good at enforcing party discipline, so it works as a force mulitplier. The opposition outside the GOP is not united. It is composed of many with differing views so the party discipline is absent.

Unfortunately, the two party system means that the candidates emerging from primaries tend to lean more heavily towards the end of each party's spectrum. Then after the primary, they try to appeal to the middle--the group that actually decides the election. Unfortunately, those of us in the middle get stuck with crappy candidates most of the time, because people we like are defeated in the primaries.

[kiwitt]

In any "First Past the Post" voting system there will always be a large number of voters unrepresented.

In a US example. 51% vote Rep. 49% vote Dem. Rep. wins election and 49% of the people miss out. This compounds over many states.

In a NZ example. 51% vote Nat. 49% vote Lab. Nat wins seat. Approximate half the seats are determined this way. The remaining half are made up by filling the seats to ensure that in the Parliament has 51% of seats are Nat and 49% Lab. This will ensure that ever voters vote counts in the make up of the Government. The Party with the largest vote can form a cabinet of Ministers.