Democracy thrives when individuals are engaged, informed, and open to dialogue. These principles can make the world a better place, and your message is one of hope and empowerment during these challenging times. Thank you for sharing your insights and your vision for a brighter future for all.
👏👏👏 I especially applaud “stop arguing with people online”--you are correct, it only leads to polarization. People read posts for validation and hardening of their existing views. I feel the best way to engage in discourse is face to face through community gatherings. Thank you so much for this post.
Looking on from the UK it definitely appears the US is becoming more polarised and with only two parties this seems to get magnified.
I struggle to see how minority groups and nuance can be represented in this system.
In the UK we have our own problems. A first past the post system means a party can get a ruling majority with much less than 50% of the vote. The argument is this creates stable government but we not only have the problem of minorities not getting a say, we also have the problem of the majority not having a say!
Our two party system works IF both are healthy. We only have one party that is mostly healthy right now. The other is terminally ill and determined to take as many people down with it as it can.
There are definitely ways that we could revise our system to give third parties a voice, especially in local government, but that takes more people getting involved in local politics. It's a mess. A fixable mess, but still a mess.
Democracy thrives when individuals are engaged, informed, and open to dialogue. These principles can make the world a better place, and your message is one of hope and empowerment during these challenging times. Thank you for sharing your insights and your vision for a brighter future for all.
I'm a natural optimist. It's painful 😂
👏👏👏 I especially applaud “stop arguing with people online”--you are correct, it only leads to polarization. People read posts for validation and hardening of their existing views. I feel the best way to engage in discourse is face to face through community gatherings. Thank you so much for this post.
Excellent suggestions!
Thank you!
Looking on from the UK it definitely appears the US is becoming more polarised and with only two parties this seems to get magnified.
I struggle to see how minority groups and nuance can be represented in this system.
In the UK we have our own problems. A first past the post system means a party can get a ruling majority with much less than 50% of the vote. The argument is this creates stable government but we not only have the problem of minorities not getting a say, we also have the problem of the majority not having a say!
Our two party system works IF both are healthy. We only have one party that is mostly healthy right now. The other is terminally ill and determined to take as many people down with it as it can.
There are definitely ways that we could revise our system to give third parties a voice, especially in local government, but that takes more people getting involved in local politics. It's a mess. A fixable mess, but still a mess.
Indeed. We've tried voter reform but you have the problem of Turkeys voting for Christmas.
Why would a ruling party change a system they were successfully elected under.
Exactly.