Colorado Supreme Court bars Trump from the ballot

Context is king. I just asked Bing Chat what "old and in decline" guy was able to accomplish.

This somehow misses reviving the unions, rebuilding ties with allies abroad, CHIPS Act, and finally (finally!) dropping insulin prices. The dude not only avoided government shutdowns when the other party literally off the rails completely, he even passed bipartisan stuff. Including gun control - gun control!
The guy was not my first, second or 3rd choice in 2020 (except for purely selfish reasons - Uncle Joe is the single most familiar with stuff in Ukraine of all the candidates both sides). Those will be "beg Hillary for forgiveness and please come back", then Elisabeth Warren, then Kamala, then Klobuchar, only then Joe tied with Butigieg. Followed by the rest of them, followed by, ok, Bloomberg I guess, followed by very reluctantly Bernie. No Tulci, please. But the guy proved that he still has it.

 

The goal is to make people's lives better, or at least not significantly worse. Not political fetishes like "bipartisanship" or "electing independent candidate".

 

Strange to say but I haven't been following the primary elections very closely. I mean, the results are fore ordained so why bother? But I gather that Biden is garnering 90% of the Democratic vote while Trump is getting 60% of the GOP vote. Does that spell trouble for the MAGA crowd in November?

 

Technically, no. A third-party candidate could win the presidency. But the problem isn't that he/she comes from a place other than the Republican or Democratic parties. Instead, it is because a truly competitive third-party candidate would serve to split the vote, throwing it to the House--where a majority of state delegations (one state, one vote) are needed. We're back to requiring a majority, and that tends to encourage two-party thinking.

A third party being successful anywhere absolutely requires it displace one of the other two parties. And since our non-parliamentary system discourages coalitions and favors pluralities that lead to majorities, it's hard to get another party off the ground. And again, the system would just cause it, if successful, to supplant an existing major party and return us to a two-party system.

Parliamentary systems can see small parties become influential, even without gaining majorities. Our system does not. Proof: it never has.

 

The only place where the count matters is the Electoral College where it does require a majority. And, as we know, one cannot form a coalition there. Win or lose with a majority. 1876 demonstrated that clearly.