ONE PARTY RULE

Pommer

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When the two major parties are polarized to the degree we’ve seen over the last dozen or so years what we have, (in effect) is One Big Party with Extreme Left and Right wings.

There is no palaver going on in the middle; both sides have their own news sources, we don’t even agree on what constitutes our “facts”.
 
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chevyontheriver

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Are you okay with the idea of a one party rule for the US? If so, state your reasoning. If not, state your reasoning.


Discuss....
Not OK at all. In fact I don't like it when we have House and Senate and presidency all of one party even for two years. I would rather have a mix, so that any progress be the result of actual compromise.

I really don't like the idea of the Democrats having control of the House and Senate and presidency. Recipe for disaster.
 
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Occams Barber

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Are you okay with the idea of a one party rule for the US? If so, state your reasoning. If not, state your reasoning.


Discuss....
By "one party rule" do you mean a political system where there is only one political party and it occupies all political offices?

OB

EDIT: an example of this is the Communist Party in China
 
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Nithavela

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The USA already has one party rule, that party just switches from time to time. The USA is set up in a way that forces a two-party system, so unless both parties unite, by definition only one party rules.
 
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chevyontheriver

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When the two major parties are polarized to the degree we’ve seen over the last dozen or so years what we have, (in effect) is One Big Party with Extreme Left and Right wings.

There is no palaver going on in the middle; both sides have their own news sources, we don’t even agree on what constitutes our “facts”.
We have lost any 'centrist' parties as we once had. Now we have leftist swamp dwellers and right wing swamp dwellers.
 
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Andrewn

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Are you okay with the idea of a one party rule for the US? If so, state your reasoning. If not, state your reasoning. Discuss....
No, of course not. Contrary to Trumpers, I believe in democracy. There has to be checks and balances.
 
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Freodin

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I find it highly amusing when some American calls the current Democratic Party "far left".

Your whole system has drifted so far to the right that even a slightly right-of-center figure like Joe Biden can be portrayed as the reincarnation of Karl Marx and Mao Zedong.
 
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grasping the after wind

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It's impossible to have one party rule. There is too much disagreement about how to govern.


That hasn't stopped New York or California from having one party rule.
 
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Are you okay with the idea of a one party rule for the US? If so, state your reasoning. If not, state your reasoning.


Discuss....
Can you clarify what you mean by "one party rule"? Are we talking a case where there is literally only one party present, or a 'dominant-party' system in which there are multiple parties but one party is in perpetual power (e.g. Democrats in Hawaii)? Is it 'one-party' by virtue of law--which would be dictatorial--or simply because that party's policies are popular enough that people vote them into power repeatedly?
 
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grasping the after wind

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I find it highly amusing when some American calls the current Democratic Party "far left".

Your whole system has drifted so far to the right that even a slightly right-of-center figure like Joe Biden can be portrayed as the reincarnation of Karl Marx and Mao Zedong.

What policies did Joe Biden advocate for in his campaign that would make you consider him to be right of center and what policies are advocated for in the Democratic Party platform that are not fairly strongly left leaning?
 
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Goonie

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Are you okay with the idea of a one party rule for the US? If so, state your reasoning. If not, state your reasoning.


Discuss....
The Republicans just lost 50 legal cases trying to ensure one party rule, something going by your previous posts you demonstrably support. So why do you support one party rule?
 
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Occams Barber

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I find it highly amusing when some American calls the current Democratic Party "far left".

Your whole system has drifted so far to the right that even a slightly right-of-center figure like Joe Biden can be portrayed as the reincarnation of Karl Marx and Mao Zedong.


I don't think many Americans realise that, compared to (for example) many Western European countries along with Australia and New Zealand, American political parties are definitely on the right wing of the political spectrum.


OB
 
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Fantine

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I live in a state with one party rule. Many people do. There are two major parties but the split is usually 60-65% Republican.

I have no doubt that our quality of life would be better if the state was more balanced. At the moment the Republican governor is sort of like John Roberts on the Supreme Court. He is conservative but he prevents the legislators from acting on their most inhumane impulses.

In 2022 Sara Huckabee Sanders will have a primary fight with Leslie Rutledge. They are both more radically reactionary than the current governor--and believe it or not, Rutledge is worse.

One party government hurts us--but the people have chosen it.

We just need different people voting!
 
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ThatRobGuy

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I don't even like our two-party rule, much less scaling that back to one party. :)

A) One-party rule, throughout history, has been associated with some of the nastiest regimes to have ever existed.

B) The very notion of one-party rule, is an implication that "there's no room for dissent", "dissent will not be tolerated"

A look at the current nations with One-party rule or a "One-party Dominant State" (which is basically just the same thing, with the exception of allowing a few token other small parties to exist, while having laws that explicitly prevent them from being in any sort of meaningful control or influence) highlights pretty quickly that it's not something we should seek to emulate.

Current examples of nations like that are North Korea, China, Vietnam, Cuba, and many nations in the Middle East.

Past examples would be nations like WW2 era Japan, Nazi Germany, Italy during the years of fascism, and pretty much any Soviet-era Eastern Bloc nation during that time period.

I can't speak for anyone else, but none of those examples have produced any sort of society I'd ever want to step foot in.


I'd argue that some of the polarizing backlash we see going back & forth in our own country is the result of having only two parties instead having more breadth of options. When you only have "two sides", people tend to vote against the worst of the "other side". And politicians (who may not be all that close to other ideologically) are saddled with every little bit of baggage that someone else has simply by having the same (R/D) after their name.

Given the size and diversity of our nation, only having two parties (and expecting that to be adequate in terms of choice of representation) is far-fetched when you look at what some other nations are doing.

For instance, if we look at some of the Scandinavian countries (which are much more ideologically and socially homogenous that our country is), here's how their legislative branches look:

Norway:
upload_2020-12-12_17-16-9.png


Sweden:
upload_2020-12-12_17-16-57.png


...or nations like Germany and Czech Republic:
upload_2020-12-12_17-18-53.png


upload_2020-12-12_17-19-39.png




Not saying we should seek to emulate every other country to a "T", but if nations of far fewer people, and with much higher levels of ideological & cultural homogeny, are finding that they need to have 6 & 7 different parties to provide adequate representation, a very diverse nation (with 300 million people, and very wide array of major philosophical and cultural differences) probably needs to revisit why we only have 2 choices.


If something as simple as being
Pro-choice, but for lower taxes
or
Pro-environment, and also pro-gun

...immediately ostracizes you from the only two major parties we have, that seems to be a bit of a red flag that maybe we don't have enough choices.
 

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Andrewn

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I'd argue that some of the polarizing backlash we see going back & forth in our own country is the result of having only two parties instead having more breadth of options. When you only have "two sides", people tend to vote against the worst of the "other side". And politicians (who may not be all that close to other ideologically) are saddled with every little bit of baggage that someone else has simply by having the same (R/D) after their name.

Given the size and diversity of our nation, only having two parties (and expecting that to be adequate in terms of choice of representation) is far-fetched when you look at what some other nations are doing.
I agree with most of what you wrote but have 3 observations:

1) In the US, there are already more than 2 political parties. In addition to Biden and Trump, in the last presidential elections there were candidates of the Libertarian and the Green parties. Electing a smaller party candidate is really wasting your vote.

2) The first-past-the-post voting system used in most elections in the US, Canada, and the UK effectively results in a 2 major-party system, even though there exists other parties of different electoral sizes. In Germany and Scandinavia they use different voting systems.

3) The fact that there are only 2 major parties in the US does not mean there are only 2 political currents. For example, under Trump, the GOP moved from the center-right to the far-right. But both currents still exist in the party. Similarly, the Democratic Party has center-left and a far-left wings. Under Biden, the center-left wing is in control.
 
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Albion

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It's impossible to have one party rule. There is too much disagreement about how to govern.
If one party holds the presidency and both houses of Congress and uses that power to alter all the laws relating to elections, it can easily create a one-party state except for the "going through the motions" that even the most dictatorial governments in other countries allow. But as for a real multi-party system, no. We seem to be close to this in the United States right now.
 
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ThatRobGuy

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1) In the US, there are already more than 2 political parties. In addition to Biden and Trump, in the last presidential elections there were candidates of the Libertarian and the Green parties.

We technically have more than two, but how many are represented in House/Senate? Justin Amash was a Libertarian House Rep, and when Sanders runs for senate he does so as Independent, but identified as Democratic when running for president.

2) The first-past-the-post voting system used in most elections in the US, Canada, and the UK effectively results in a 2 major-party system, even though there exists other parties of different electoral sizes. In Germany and Scandinavia they use different voting systems.

But even Canada and UK (much smaller nations than we are) even with similar voting systems, still have more diversity in their legislative branch than we do.

Canada:
upload_2020-12-12_18-31-3.png


UK:
upload_2020-12-12_18-33-8.png


US:
upload_2020-12-12_18-34-18.png


AV/Runoff is definitely a better system for having more diverse representation, however, as UK and Canada show, FPTP doesn't always have to equate to a total two-party monopoly at all levels of government.

3) The fact that there are only 2 major parties in the US does not mean there are only 2 political currents. For example, under Trump, the GOP moved from the center-right to the far-right. But both currents still exist in the party. Similarly, the Democratic Party has center-left and a far-left wings. Under Biden, the center-left wing is in control.

The point I was touching on is that due to the fact that there's only two political parties (which means you end up sharing the baggage with everyone else who has the same letter after their name), something another person (who just happens to be on the same side of the bisecting line) does/says/etc... can impact another person from that same party 5 states away. Sort of an unfair "guilt by association" effect. Democrats lost seats in the house due to things democrats in other states were saying and pushing for. Republican governors (who may not share that much overlap with Trump & McConnell) get the brunt of voters who are out to spite-vote against anyone with an (R) after their name.

Even if there were 4 parties (FarLeft/CenterLeft/CenterRight/FarRight), that would at least allow moderates to distance themselves from the more extreme people who could end up sabotaging them and stirring up resentment against anyone who happens to exist under the same banner.

If there were a Center-Left party, Tulsi Gabbard wouldn't have to care what AOC said. If there were a Center-Right party, Charlie Baker wouldn't have to do damage control after Trump says something stupid.
 
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Goonie

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We technically have more than two, but how many are represented in House/Senate? Justin Amash was a Libertarian House Rep, and when Sanders runs for senate he does so as Independent, but identified as Democratic when running for president.



But even Canada and UK (much smaller nations than we are) even with similar voting systems, still have more diversity in their legislative branch than we do.

Canada:
View attachment 290522

UK:
View attachment 290523

US:
View attachment 290524

AV/Runoff is definitely a better system for having more diverse representation, however, as UK and Canada show, FPTP doesn't always have to equate to a total two-party monopoly at all levels of government.



The point I was touching on is that due to the fact that there's only two political parties (which means you end up sharing the baggage with everyone else who has the same letter after their name), something another person (who just happens to be on the same side of the bisecting line) does/says/etc... can impact another person from that same party 5 states away. Sort of an unfair "guilt by association" effect. Democrats lost seats in the house due to things democrats in other states were saying and pushing for. Republican governors (who may not share that much overlap with Trump & McConnell) get the brunt of voters who are out to spite-vote against anyone with an (R) after their name.

Even if there were 4 parties (FarLeft/CenterLeft/CenterRight/FarRight), that would at least allow moderates to distance themselves from the more extreme people who could end up sabotaging them and stirring up resentment against anyone who happens to exist under the same banner.
In regard to the UK the house of commons is a better representative, the house of Lords(which I think your graph shows) is unelected.
 
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