1st July 2016, 7:53 PM
Dark Jaguar Wrote:That was pretty insulting there. You can't say there's "literally zero reason not to join a party" after everything we've said up until now."Everything"? You've got nothing beyond absurd conspiracy theories about"how corrupt parties are" which don't hold up one bit when you look at them once.
Sure, I would not have used a tone as insulting as kos's, but he's not wrong.
Quote:If nothing else, joining one party locks you out of any say in the other party. Isn't it better, regardless of your political leanings, to be able to have a say in the other side's selection process so you don't get a Trump as candidate?"Dirty tricks" like trying to get people from your party to vote in the other primary to get an opponent you more want to face is a thing done sometimes in this country, but we'd be better off without it, overall.
Quote:Also, that person's idea that the party should "take over the whole process"? That's pretty terrifying. So, leave the state governments ENTIRELY out of the selection process the two de facto ruling parties have? No thank you.No, I think you misunderstand. What he means is that the national parties should set standards for primary elections that would be used in all states, instead of every state having different rules. Every four years we are reminded of how ridiculous our primary/caucus system is, how needlessly complicated it is, how every single state party gets to set different rules making things incredibly confusing... and while that's a very American way to do things, I'm not opposed to setting some more standards. Things like caucuses need to go, certainly! All states should have primaries, caucuses are extremely unrepresentative -- very few people vote in them compared to primaries. Reducing overdone, unnecessary confusion is not necessarily "scary". (And remember, right now, state governments themselves have no say in how primary or caucus elections are held. It's the state PARTIES that control that.)
But yes, please reduce our complaints about the party system down to "you're just iconoclastic rebellious teenagers who haven't learned to grow up and pick a side".[/QUOTE]
Well, it's either that or you're right down there with 9/11 Truthers or something, people making wildly false claims because of that age-old American trend of hating and not trusting the government...
Seriously, the stuff you say about parties, as if they're all corrupt (so very wrong!) and by not joining one you somehow "keep things more honest" or something? That's not how it works. That sounds like someone saying "I hate the system so I don't vote in elections" (meaning November ones here). The problem is, that only helps perpetuate the system, not change it! Not voting does not change things. VOTING changes things.