lol democracy

People voted republican because the democrats screwed many things up.

Everyone hated bush so we voted democrats in. Now everyone hates Obama so they'll vote in republicans. Politics are just a popularity contest.

honestly bro a super-majority and both houses for two years has yielded a lot less than most people hoped for

and yeah, the layman is a fickle bitch

well its about choosing the less evil, and obama is probably the right choice

Democracy should be more than the right to choose between two similar parties.

On November 05 2010 22:06 Surprise wrote: Democracy should be more than the right to choose between two similar parties.

actually it's a problem with the vote counting method used (first past the post). Only UK, USA and Canada uses it, and they all have 2 majority parties that battle every election. The rest of the world uses proportional representation and has vibrant democracies with many parties. Case in point: New Zealand switched from FPP to PR, and overnight the 2 main parties broke down into a bunch of smaller ones.

Of course it's very hard to switch from FPP to PR since the main parties fight it with incredible inertia as it affects them badly.

Favours 2 large parties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_past_the_post
Favours many small parties:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation

The majority of debate in English about voting systems is about whether to move to more proportionality not less. This is because the established parties in current US and UK elections can, and most often do, win formal control of the parliament with support from as little as 20-25% of eligible voters, at the cost of smaller parties.[2]. In Canada the situation is arguably worse with governments regularly formed by parties with support of under 40% of actual voters holding majority power for full five-year terms, and a generally weaker judicial check on power than in the US, and weaker legislative checks on power than in the UK.

blame the swing voters!

lol sheep

As far as I'm concerned you make your bed you have to lay in it. If the country goes to shit under republican rule then fuck america. Sucks the rest of us have to pay the price but whatev's. But I always hope for the best, and if the repubs hit a home run then it's allllllll good.

i swear to god i'll gladly be republican and be the fucking crusader for the republicans if they pass the poker legislation ;(

On November 06 2010 04:25 YoMeR wrote: i swear to god i'll gladly be republican and be the fucking crusader for the republicans if they pass the poker legislation ;(

Was a republican who caused it in the first place.

From Euro commentators's comments its more a vote against Democrats than for Republicans.

And Obama should grow some balls, he is trying to please everyone at the same time and in reality he doesn't fully satisfy nobody. Also point from Euro commentators and how The Economist feels about Obama. He didn't live up to the campaign hype so far =>People vote against him even though Republicans are fucked with their squabbles and don't really come up with policies/solutions and just criticise.

It might be even good for Obama's re-election eventually now that Republicans can't just blindly throw dirt as they got power again.

Lemon, I think you misunderestimate the Republican's capacity for mudslinging. Powered by newly unlimited corporate sponsorship, I predict the bullshitstorm will be a record breaker in the 2012 election season. Even though the Republicans now theoretically bear more responsibility for what gets done, it won't stop them from blaming absolutely everything that goes wrong on the Democrats/Obama. From my understanding one of the reasons the Dems got hosed was that their disappointed voter base failed to turnout, while the galvanized Republican base got out there and voted. International observers may be misinterpreting the data by thinking that the majority of Americans support the Republicans again. I think they probably don't support the Republicans, its just that a larger portion than ever of Americans are becoming disillusioned with the political system here and don't vote because they are going to hate the government either way the election goes.

Americans voted against Republicans in 2008 and against Democrats in 2010. Not saying this is rational, just noting it.

Just for the record, the party of the new president always loses seats in the first midterm election. I think 2002 is the only exception in the last century. It has to do with the timing of election cycles. The president pushes his most controversial legislation in the first two years, and spends the last two years trying to appease the middle, because the result of American presidential elections doesn't have much to do with what you did over four years and has everything to do with how the public feels about you in the last month or two before the election. (See Bush I: very popular president until the recession in 1992.)

SpeedyJackFoxNewsBot: The Republicans used the filibuster to a historically unprecedented degree. The Democrats hardly had the run of the mill in passing legislation.

CyanidePink's point should appeal to liquidpoker, as this forum undoubtedly harbors a substantial libertarian population. With proportional representation, you'd have some Libertarian seats in Congress every year (as well as Green, and now, Tea Party).

Seems like Ron Paul was the only good candidate ;-0

On November 05 2010 21:06 Jubert69 wrote: People voted republican because the democrats screwed many things up.

How so?

On November 05 2010 22:26 CyanidePink wrote: Show nested quote + On November 05 2010 22:06 Surprise wrote: Democracy should be more than the right to choose between two similar parties. actually it's a problem with the vote counting method used (first past the post). Only UK, USA and Canada uses it, and they all have 2 majority parties that battle every election. The rest of the world uses proportional representation and has vibrant democracies with many parties. Case in point: New Zealand switched from FPP to PR, and overnight the 2 main parties broke down into a bunch of smaller ones. Of course it's very hard to switch from FPP to PR since the main parties fight it with incredible inertia as it affects them badly. Favours 2 large parties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_past_the_post Favours many small parties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation

Holy shit that article on proportional representation is poorly written.