I think this could definately happen if libertarians could shed their image among the chattering classes as being crackpots. Lots of yuppies who like gay marriage and low taxes...
It would also help if the libertarians stopped being crackpots.
I think this could definately happen if libertarians could shed their image among the chattering classes as being crackpots. Lots of yuppies who like gay marriage and low taxes...
It would also help if the libertarians stopped being crackpots.
Woodrow Wilson suggested it, actually. In the pre-revolutionary part of Reds! he actually gets it passed due to deadlock between Congress and the Presidency.
Indeed. Supporting lower taxes and increased social freedoms is freakin' insane.
That's not the problem, the problem is the associations with owning crazy weapons, the gold standard, Austrian economics, etc... in the popular mind.
A less radical "classical liberal" party could do well IMO. Just like the democrats, you'll have to sell out and moderate to get elected![]()
Britain had a referendum on introducing a hybrid version of this called the "Alternative Vote" where the voter can optionally choose second or third preferences.
It was soundly defeated because neither of the major parties (for misguided and arguably selfish reasons) bothered to explain or sell the concept to the electorate.
No. There were serious discussions about that way back in the 1910s.
This isn't a thread to debate modern-day political reform, this is a thread to determine how the US could have, for better or worse, become a multi-party state.Apparently, I'm one of the few who's skeptical about the merits of a multiple party system. Neither system is perfect. The two party system does tend to squelch small parties... but multi-party systems get into the problems of coalition building, which isn't any fun either. I've always regarded the biggest political problem of the USA as not the two-party system or the EC, but the fact that our population has a crappy turnout rate for elections; basically, the 'will of the people' isn't being seen because they don't vote. The 'will of the people' would be reflected in the two party system just fine if we had 90+% voter turnout. When you get down into 50-60%, you got problems. People who decry the conservatives in our system overlook the fact that the conservatives are superb at getting out the vote for their side, and the moderates and liberals are bad at it. Instead of looking at changing our system, we should look at increasing voter turnout....
I think you'd probably have to get rid of FPTP for this to work, at least on a national scale. Something like IRV would probably be good.