Actually, nothing was set up to benefit the 2 parties, or any parties for that matter. The founding fathers disliked parties and there were none when they created the constitution.
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Originally Posted by stevo22
Cool quiz. I knew I was libertarian, I just cant vote for a loser in such an important election, so going down my list...it looks like the republican party might get my vote. if I voted like the internet told me to.
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Look at the polls in your state. I don't know where you're from, but unless it's one of the 20 or so battleground states, there's no reason not to vote your conscience. Most states are solidly going to one candidate or the other anyway, so it's a good idea to look into that for your state.
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Originally Posted by SirSeymour
The problem with this is that after those two parties became "major" they would turn into basically what we have now. It is a fault in the Federal system of democracy we use that we are plagued with really only two legit choices regardless of who may be on the ballot.
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Actually, it's a fault of how we count our votes, according to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger's_Law">Duverger's Law</a>
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Originally Posted by ScottKuma
Problem is, I'm voting for Bush this year...mostly 'cuz I do NOT like Kerry.
Defensive voting is NOT how it's supposed to be.
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Again, see my above statement regarding the condition of your state. If you're not in a battleground state, please, vote your conscience.
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Originally Posted by thefictionweliv
I don't think that it will necissarily be that way, as the 3rd Party candidates all have a plan for ballot, election reform that would allow the views and candidates from other parties to be put in the open. Essentially they aren't going to forget where they came from. This would better suit America's diversity than the current tyranny of the Rep/Dem parties.
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Precisely. With a change to instant runoff voting, it would be much easier for third parties to gain power because it would eliminate the entire basis for the "wasted vote" mantra.
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Originally Posted by SirSeymour
It is not a matter of forgetting where they came from, although that would eventually happen too. It is a matter of once they got there, they would want to stay there and that, by nature, means moving to the middle. Consider that for the most part 3rd parties in this country are all either right or left of the Dem/Rep parties, making them more partisan in nature. To stay in power, they would have to appeal to a wider group as the fringe might get them into power but could not keep them there.
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Thanks to instant runoff voting, or some similar voting reform, if one were to become unhappy, they could easily vote for a different [party which they agree with more instead.