Globally, Broad Support for Representative and Direct Democracy

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(10-17-2017, 03:04 PM)hollodero Wrote: I get your points and think they do hold merit. I just want to add that your system cements the two party system, and I wonder if that's the wisest way to go. Also, and I just need to stress that, it's just a wonderful feeling to know your vote effectively counts for the party/person you voted for. 

Regional autonomy in certain areas could still protect state's rights.

And I get the other side of the argument, and it's not that the way I am arguing for is perfect by any means, but I do think it's currently the best available, or at least the best that's realistic.

No doubt you've seen me argue quite a few times on here against the two-party system, but honestly... even with a straight popular vote, we would never lose the two-party system. There's simply too much money involved in those two for any third contender to get in the ring. Unless that third party can summon up well over a billion dollars in campaign money, and have SuperPACs spending even more for their campaign, no third party stands a chance at becoming President.

For that matter, even winning a Congress seat is extremely hard because the two parties send some of their money down to their party members at lower levels for them to run, too. Just this year there was a special election in Georgia for a congressional seat. The two parties combined for over $50m in spending. For just one of Georgia's 12 seats, and one of the US' 435 seats.

Unless you can make some major campaign finance reform, there will always be a two-party dominance here... and good luck getting that reform, because the two parties don't want to share their power, and they got into power by being able to spend so much and make so much money.

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You might feel a bit difference on the wonderful feeling if each of the different areas in Austria had their own Constitution, and you had some extremist A-holes in some far away region deciding what should happen to your region, simply because your region isn't extremist or populous enough to stop theirs from deciding everything that will happen to you, for you.

I mean, the best example I can think that you'd understand is... could you imagine if every country in the EU went to a straight collective popular vote to decide a single leader for the EU? Though I guess it wouldn't be that different from it is now, where it seems like Germany pretty much runs the EU.