A 3rd party could try and build from the bottom up and dismantle the two parties powerbase but it doesn’t seem to be happening.
Not really. The FPTP system makes that incredibly difficult. You can’t get votes without taking some amount away from the closest party.
So existing parties are encouraged to shut down and absorb new parties. And new parties will struggle to get a majority of the old party, let alone a majority of the entire election.
We need a system that doesn’t have these nonstarter problems, and that’s star + approval voting.
There are several countries that have FPTP voting, but they’re not as entrenched at everywhere into two parties the way the US is. The UK, for example, has several regions where one of the two major parties is mostly fighting against a regional party, and the other major party has little to no voting base there.
Not only that, but several southern states have used instant runoff voting since the end of Reconstruction (or not long after). If you look at the makeup of their legislatures over the past 100+ years, you’ll see that they are just as filled with Democrats and Republicans as everywhere else.
Not really. The FPTP system makes that incredibly difficult. You can’t get votes without taking some amount away from the closest party.
So existing parties are encouraged to shut down and absorb new parties. And new parties will struggle to get a majority of the old party, let alone a majority of the entire election.
We need a system that doesn’t have these nonstarter problems, and that’s star + approval voting.
There are several countries that have FPTP voting, but they’re not as entrenched at everywhere into two parties the way the US is. The UK, for example, has several regions where one of the two major parties is mostly fighting against a regional party, and the other major party has little to no voting base there.
Not only that, but several southern states have used instant runoff voting since the end of Reconstruction (or not long after). If you look at the makeup of their legislatures over the past 100+ years, you’ll see that they are just as filled with Democrats and Republicans as everywhere else.
Point is, FPTP is not the only thing at play.