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[springa]

There is a certain smell in the air this fall - musty leaves? diesel exhaust?  No, I am talking about the upcoming elections.  For the last couple of months there has been a steady stream of commercials in which one candidate runs negative ads which often center around the theme of accusing their main opponent of running negative ads.  With this

Comments

[the23]

the most important issue for me is ballot access: i am loathe to vote for either of a couple of parties who have clubbed together to screw the other parties out of even the faintest sniff of power.

that said i have decided not to vote at all in american elections even though i technically still could. i don't intend on returning to the us and i don't believe that my vote could have any significant effect given that i refuse to vote for either of the parties above. indeed it seems there is a very good chance it wouldn't get counted at all.

[springa]

Well, to be fair the two major parties couldn't dominate politics the way they do if most people who voted weren't prepared to vote for their candidates. Voting by individual districts tends to favor two-party systems, while proportional representation gives smaller parties more of an opening. The US and the UK both elect by districts (although they might not be called districts in the UK), so they both have systems dominated by 2 parties, although the smaller parties in the UK do have at least a small presence in Parliament whereas they are virtually nonexistent in the US Congress.

In US history, there is a pattern of "third parties" forming as an alternative to the two party system, but then fading away and often having their main ideas (and the majority of their supporters) coopted by one of the two main political parties.