Political parties in the US

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-22 08:11pm

election is comming up and i have no clue whom to vote for. i´ve never lived in the us but i can vote in california, the state which was the last place my mom lived in.
anyway, never having lived in the us i´m not really familliar with the different parties. what parties are there?
there´s the democrats and republicans of course, and the greens but what else is there. could someone put down the most important parties so i can look up their programs on the web?

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2004-02-22 08:14pm

Check the top of this forum for the "Political resources list." You should be able to find what you seek.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-22 08:17pm

Joe wrote:Check the top of this forum for the "Political resources list." You should be able to find what you seek.

aah, i see, very cool. thanks.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-22 08:22pm

where do you live?

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-02-22 08:23pm

Well, if you like Bush, vote for Bush. If you don't like Bush, vote for Kerry. That appears to be the sum of the current political issues within the nation.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-22 08:28pm

kojikun wrote:where do you live?

in germany. stuttgart to be more specific.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-22 08:31pm

HemlockGrey wrote:Well, if you like Bush, vote for Bush. If you don't like Bush, vote for Kerry. That appears to be the sum of the current political issues within the nation.

well, actually that´s exactly what i don´t want to do.
i want to read all the different programs of the parties and vote for whom i think has the best program. perhaps that´s too idealistic since they´re going to screw us over anyway, but well, vacation is comming up and i need something to do.

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2004-02-22 08:33pm

salm wrote:
HemlockGrey wrote:Well, if you like Bush, vote for Bush. If you don't like Bush, vote for Kerry. That appears to be the sum of the current political issues within the nation.
well, actually that´s exactly what i don´t want to do.
i want to read all the different programs of the parties and vote for whom i think has the best program. perhaps that´s too idealistic since they´re going to screw us over anyway, but well, vacation is comming up and i need something to do.

Well Bush and Kerry are the candidates for the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively. Those parties are the only ones with any chance of winning an election.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-22 08:33pm

actually salm, what hes saying is that no third party candidate is going to win so the issue is polarised. you either like bush and vote for him, or dont vote for bush and vote for kerry. anything else is allowing bush to outweigh kerry.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-22 08:41pm

well in a long term voting for some third party might result in a more established third party.
a couple of years ago the greens here in germany were nothing. now they´re part of the government. i realize that it´s much harder in the us since you don´t have this form of coalition among governing parties, but, well who knows, perhaps in 40.000 years...

Post by **haas mark** » 2004-02-22 09:13pm

salm wrote:well in a long term voting for some third party might result in a more established third party.
a couple of years ago the greens here in germany were nothing. now they´re part of the government. i realize that it´s much harder in the us since you don´t have this form of coalition among governing parties, but, well who knows, perhaps in 40.000 years...

Hehehe.. maybe so, maybe so.. But it seems every election year, more and more people are voting third party. However, I think it's more going to be one-on-one with Bush and Kerry this go-round.. I don't think that it should be that way, but it is.. -sighs-

~ver

Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2004-02-22 09:48pm

Here in the United States politics in general are more conservative than in Europe. For example, a liberal European party would seem to American politicians like communists, whereas a conservative European party would...also seem like communists.

I kid, I kid. But seriously, there are only two parties that matter, the Republican (conservative) party, and the Democratic (relatively liberal) party.

Just about all the third parties are run by idealists and whackos that wouldn't actually know enough to run the government effectively.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-02-22 09:53pm

My vote is independent of either party. I'll still vote for one of the major candidates if I think one of the major candidates is the best person for the job, but if I think that, say, the Green Party candidate could do better (never happen, but just for the sake of argument) then that's where my vote goes. Screw political parties.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2004-02-23 06:13pm

I'd say screw political parties too, and vote based soley on the candidate; however, none of the fringe party candidates are even remotely in touch with reality.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2004-02-23 06:19pm

Hemlock: You have to vote strategically, however. Which is more important, voting based on principle, or voting to get the least of two evils into office? It's more important to get the guy you don't want in office OUT of office.

PrinceofLowLight · Post by **PrinceofLowLight** » 2004-02-23 09:16pm

There's a quote an old SNL skit that sums it up the best-
"Remember, when you don't vote for the candidate you find least offensive, you run the risk of winding up with the candidate you find most offensive"

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-23 09:39pm

but on the long term a third party might get big OR which i think is more likely, the two other parties might actually adopt ideas of the third party because they see that too many voters run off, if enough people vote for a third party.

Psycho Smiley · Post by **Psycho Smiley** » 2004-02-23 09:47pm

Since I'm not an American, I don't want to get too out of line here, but I think that people voting based more on who they don't want elected than who they do is a sure sign that something is wrong with the system.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-02-23 09:51pm

salm wrote:but on the long term a third party might get big OR which i think is more likely, the two other parties might actually adopt ideas of the third party because they see that too many voters run off, if enough people vote for a third party.

As parties exist to get someone in the President's office -- and that requires 50% of the electoral vote -- it is unlikely that a third party will really become viable.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2004-02-24 12:51pm

phongn wrote: As parties exist to get someone in the President's office -- and that requires 50% of the electoral vote -- it is unlikely that a third party will really become viable.

as said, it´s unlikely, but there´s still the possiblity that the big parties adopt ideas from smaller parties, if the demand is there and expressed by enough people by voting a third party. i´m not saying that this is going to be withing the next 50 years either.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-02-24 01:10pm

salm wrote:as said, it´s unlikely, but there´s still the possiblity that the big parties adopt ideas from smaller parties, if the demand is there and expressed by enough people by voting a third party. i´m not saying that this is going to be withing the next 50 years either.

The large parties in the US are actually rather diverse which further minimizes the utility of third parties. They have covered the center out to some moderately extreme (in the US sense) fringes pretty well.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-02-24 02:06pm

Large numbers of votes for a third party signals the two majors that there's a dissatisfied voter base out there just begging to be swept into the arms of a major party. See for example the Progressive Party, which never came close to electing a president but the ideals of which were eventually absorbed by the Democrats. The value in voting third party is sending a message that certain issues are important enough to you that you'll vote for someone sure to lose the election because you like his position on those issues best.

Rogue 9 · Post by **Rogue 9** » 2004-02-24 02:16pm

Psycho Smiley wrote:Since I'm not an American, I don't want to get too out of line here, but I think that people voting based more on who they don't want elected than who they do is a sure sign that something is wrong with the system.

Erm... No, it isn't. If you can't find a candidate who agrees with you on everything to your satisfaction (which I guarantee you won't) you vote to make sure that the guy you like the least does not gain office. But that's only the intelligent voters. No, a good 80% of the electorate picks a party and votes the party line no matter what just because of their parents or whatever. Its about 40% going to either side automatically just because people allow the parties to herd them like cows. So yes, the Presidential election is decided by about 20% of the voting population.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2004-02-24 04:26pm

phongn wrote:As parties exist to get someone in the President's office -- and that requires 50% of the electoral vote -- it is unlikely that a third party will really become viable.

What would happen if no candidate got 50%?

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2004-02-24 04:29pm

Uraniun235 wrote:
phongn wrote:As parties exist to get someone in the President's office -- and that requires 50% of the electoral vote -- it is unlikely that a third party will really become viable.
What would happen if no candidate got 50%?

The one with the most would still win. In fact that's as common as not given the way the system is set up.