I’d argue the amount of work and connections necessary to run a campaign is because of political parties. You need a media machine because the other guys will have one.
I’m starting to see why you occasionally fall for libertarians, this is practically a libertarian argument. You’ve picked an element that is ever present (government in their case, political parties in yours), blamed it for the way things turned out in the real world, and then imagined if it were relegated to as small as possible a role, or eliminated it, that things would be perfect / better.
The amount of work and connections necessary to run a campaign has to do with there being lots and lots of people, consuming lots and lots of media, and trying to persuade them to decide in your favor.
I’d like ranked choice everywhere, and I’d also like for solely public funding of campaigns. And the overturning of the citizens united decision.
All of that said I agree with most of what you’re advocating for anyway and largely agree with most of what you’re saying and want more than two parties in the US so rock on. 🎸
I suspect we’d agree a lot more than we’d disagree :)
FWIW I think most libertarian talking points are crap (especially lately).
I think the whole ‘take some piece of something and blame it for whatever’s wrong’ attitude is sophomoric to the point of being childishly immature. Libertarians do a lot of that publicly, and it’s stupid and narrow-minded. Thus, housecats.
I’d summarize my political position as ‘I think the married gay couple should be able to defend themselves, their marijuana farm, and their adopted children with AR-15 rifles, knowing that if they get hurt and have to go to the hospital, single payer health care will mean they don’t go bankrupt’. I take my positions on their merits, not out of revenge against some apparent problem caused by some group.
I oppose political parties for the same reason George Washington warned us about them in his farewell speech- that they encourage voting based on party loyalty rather than the common good. And that’s in addition to the complaints about the two-party system I’ve already laid out.
I think if we eliminated primaries and let anyone with signatures get on the ballot, that by itself would sufficiently reduce the influence of parties. They could stop being kingmakers and start being more of a broader support structure for ideologically similar (not identical) candidates.
We definitely need more functional parties though. We need minimum of 2, probably better with 4 or 5, and right now between GOP and DNC together we have about 0.8 of one. :(
I’m starting to see why you occasionally fall for libertarians, this is practically a libertarian argument. You’ve picked an element that is ever present (government in their case, political parties in yours), blamed it for the way things turned out in the real world, and then imagined if it were relegated to as small as possible a role, or eliminated it, that things would be perfect / better.
The amount of work and connections necessary to run a campaign has to do with there being lots and lots of people, consuming lots and lots of media, and trying to persuade them to decide in your favor.
I’d like ranked choice everywhere, and I’d also like for solely public funding of campaigns. And the overturning of the citizens united decision.
All of that said I agree with most of what you’re advocating for anyway and largely agree with most of what you’re saying and want more than two parties in the US so rock on. 🎸
I suspect we’d agree a lot more than we’d disagree :)
FWIW I think most libertarian talking points are crap (especially lately).
I think the whole ‘take some piece of something and blame it for whatever’s wrong’ attitude is sophomoric to the point of being childishly immature. Libertarians do a lot of that publicly, and it’s stupid and narrow-minded. Thus, housecats.
I’d summarize my political position as ‘I think the married gay couple should be able to defend themselves, their marijuana farm, and their adopted children with AR-15 rifles, knowing that if they get hurt and have to go to the hospital, single payer health care will mean they don’t go bankrupt’. I take my positions on their merits, not out of revenge against some apparent problem caused by some group.
I oppose political parties for the same reason George Washington warned us about them in his farewell speech- that they encourage voting based on party loyalty rather than the common good. And that’s in addition to the complaints about the two-party system I’ve already laid out.
I think if we eliminated primaries and let anyone with signatures get on the ballot, that by itself would sufficiently reduce the influence of parties. They could stop being kingmakers and start being more of a broader support structure for ideologically similar (not identical) candidates.
We definitely need more functional parties though. We need minimum of 2, probably better with 4 or 5, and right now between GOP and DNC together we have about 0.8 of one. :(