Comments on: Chuck Hagel Suggests Third Party http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:19:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: phin http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394462 phin Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:36:26 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394462 I could be wrong, but I think the main problem is redistricting by both Dems and the GOP. There is no incentive for compromise when the overall majority of seats are virtually safe and unchallenged. If the majority of Congressional seats were in play most of the time in *every* election, I guarantee you that hyper-partisanship would be a lot tougher to pull off. The key as always is increased competition, for ideas, for policies, etc. On the other hand, you wouldn't also have such stark differences between the parties cause everybody would be playing it safe trying their best to buy off the electorate with what they think they would want at any particular point in time, so I dunno...Anyway, that's the way I see it... I could be wrong, but I think the main problem is redistricting by both Dems and the GOP. There is no incentive for compromise when the overall majority of seats are virtually safe and unchallenged. If the majority of Congressional seats were in play most of the time in *every* election, I guarantee you that hyper-partisanship would be a lot tougher to pull off. The key as always is increased competition, for ideas, for policies, etc. On the other hand, you wouldn’t also have such stark differences between the parties cause everybody would be playing it safe trying their best to buy off the electorate with what they think they would want at any particular point in time, so I dunno…Anyway, that’s the way I see it…

]]> By: Dr. Saturn http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394460 Dr. Saturn Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:16:59 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394460 3rd or 4th options will never work until we can vote for 2nd & 3rd choices; where you hold rounds of voting and in each round, knock out the one with the least votes and then count all of those voters' next choice and keep going until there's a majority. The problem is, counting a tiered voting system would take a lot longer and be logistically impractical if it weren't done digitally. Also, it's not feasible to hold something as public as an election digitally with proprietary software. Ok, I suppose it is feasible, and it is happening, but there's very little trust in a system like that. Public efforts need to be run on public software - if the people don't trust the system, then the election is meaningless. (Whether it actually is legitimate or not) 3rd or 4th options will never work until we can vote for 2nd & 3rd choices; where you hold rounds of voting and in each round, knock out the one with the least votes and then count all of those voters’ next choice and keep going until there’s a majority. The problem is, counting a tiered voting system would take a lot longer and be logistically impractical if it weren’t done digitally.

Also, it’s not feasible to hold something as public as an election digitally with proprietary software. Ok, I suppose it is feasible, and it is happening, but there’s very little trust in a system like that. Public efforts need to be run on public software - if the people don’t trust the system, then the election is meaningless. (Whether it actually is legitimate or not)

]]> By: Nelson http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394447 Nelson Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:24:46 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2008/03/20/chuck-hagel-suggests-third-party/#comment-394447 Correct me if I'm wrong, but usually when either of the two major parties has a split, they reform somewhat to regain their lost members (or at least gain different members) so they can compete with the remaining major party again? A split party can't win elections and therefore won't be useful. Correct me if I’m wrong, but usually when either of the two major parties has a split, they reform somewhat to regain their lost members (or at least gain different members) so they can compete with the remaining major party again? A split party can’t win elections and therefore won’t be useful.

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