Colorado Supreme Court bars Trump from the ballot

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by nosborne48, Dec 20, 2023.

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  1. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    In our system of single member districts and first past the post winners, changing the makeup of Congress would probably require the sea change that you're describing. But as a single position, president is different: there's no systemic reason why an independent or minor party candidate couldn't be elected president. It just means that a plurality of voters, reasonably well distributed, actually vote that candidate.

    But I don't foresee this happening any time soon. People claim that they want this, but then they allow themselves to be easily manipulated into not considering a candidate "serious" by the mainstream media -- and I'm including both the left and right wings of it, since above all they are both guardians of the status quo.
     
    JBjunior likes this.
  2. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    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.
     
    Jonathan Whatley likes this.
  3. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

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

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I'm genuinely unsure how that's a response to what Rich and I were talking about.
     
  5. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    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?
     
  6. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  7. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    It takes a majority of electoral votes to avoid throwing the election to the U.S. House, but it doesn't take a majority of the popular vote in a state to win its electoral votes. If anything, we're all too familiar with how it doesn't take a majority of votes to win the presidency.
     
    MaceWindu likes this.
  8. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    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.
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Hence the sentence before the one you quoted.
     
    Rich Douglas likes this.

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