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There are effectively only 2 parties in the US: Republican and Democrat. They are so ideologically opposed (far-right vs moderate, mostly) that changing parties is anathema. There are a few other parties, usually called Independent when they win a seat, but those tend to go to politicians in spite of them being of a different party, i.e. following the individual.
When people vacate seats before a term is up (more commonly a person just states they won't run for reelection), the state either appoints a replacement (senators) or the states hold a special election (representatives).
I was really wondering about that one. Thanks for answering.
Everyone here seems to be relaxed about tzhte fact that there will be vacant seats. Good to hear it's just part of how the system works.
Leaving the parliament before the term ends is so uncommon here, I really don't know what would happen.
They aren't that different tho. The range of policy and stances in policy would/could/does fall within one single party in the rest of the world. Let's break it down.
Foreign policy = same, cept for the Pro-Putin MAGA crowd. So essentially, there's 2 sides. One side pro-"western" nations (EU, US, Can, Aus, NZ, Jap, SK, Iz, UK) the other is Pro-Putin (Rus, NK, etc, etc)
Economic policy = samesies; both NeoLiberal, both pro-wartime debt spending, both austerity as matter of course, suppressing knowledge of an alternative even existing.
A happy worker is a productive worker. Shut up and do your job.
one side pulls hard hard right, the other comes pre-negotiated to guarantee plans will land further right than they've been written. Like clockwork, undoing the gains from the new deal, slowly and steadily to not invoke revolution. Democrats pass more Republican legislation than Republicans do. We have a choice of working class slavery with no taxes on business or the wealthy, or working class slavery, now but with 10% less taxes on the middle class - but with higher gas prices, cuz fuck you. Since communism fell the US has turned its ire inward trying to turn everyone into proletariat. In other words, with only their labor to sell for $. Add in the destruction of small, local business, rigging the stock market against retail/'dumb' money but usurping retirement accounts and investing everyone's pensions into their pyramid scheme, essentially holding everyone, not just those that want change, hostage
Social policy = the ONLY difference. This manifests not just thru media, but judicially. Both Pro-Police state. Both twist Mass media (and that's 5he only media now) into the 5th government branch, regurgitating the governments propaganda.
Republicans are varying degrees conservative, pining for years long gone that no one has actually lived thru. The right wants a return to the post war era, minus unions, taxes, and civic investment (the things that allowed the middle class to exist). Democrats are socially conciliatory. Which is seen as spineless. They'll go along with the get along. But they'll never actually spur change, just appease w/e unrest and go right back to fellatiating corporations and police unions.
Civilians on both sides want change. Both sides can acknowledge that America is broken but one side says it's because of the transgenders and the gays and the other side just says, to song and dance, "hey, we aren't them 👉" to distract from the pointing fingers at consolidated wealth as the problem.
So it's get in line, act in line, or get benched.
Fuck America. We're out here starving and we have the choice of a road side carcass or a multivitamin but never actual food.
None of that matters. It's a 2-party FPTP system and one party is fascist and trying to overthrow democracy. It's literally a choice between a shitty country and facsism.
The place to try to push for progressive change is the primaries, not the fucking General Election. At this point the General is just survival.
You've seen less election cycles than I have if you think voting will bring change.
Social unrest, protesting, rioting brings change
Voting (in the past 50 years) simply reaffirms or denies the social unrest. The media talks of nothing else. It's ratify the status quo or the end of democracy, neverminding that the status quo is essentially institutionalized fleecing. We are tax-chattle. Every dollar you save, somehow, in the system entirely built to make that impossible, will be extracted from your body in exchange for medicine. We will all die penniless and propertyless. By design.
So fucking do it. Get out there and riot or whatever you want. All you're doing is shitting on the last form of peaceful change we have left. We all get you're jaded and cynical.
I never said I was against voting, quite the opposite actually.
I'm just trying to temper expectations back to reality. Voting for change when you have two options 1. Status quo, even tho everyone acknowledges it's not working - for us anyways 2. Fascism.
Ya see how only one side offers change, and that change is terrifying?
The Dems are essentially incapable of leading change that benefits everyone, and when they do pass big policy, it's Republican policy (Welfare to work, 3 strikes, ACA).
Unfortunately for anyone concerned with the future or wanting better, be that the youth or progressives, Liberals (moderate "Democrats", commonly called centrists nowadays)vision of society is what we have. Trickle down. Subscription model everything. Yada yada. When all you care about is money (which is implied by being pro-corporate, socially conciliatory) all you care about is not rocking the boat. It's the mayor of DC naming the street Black Lives Matter to placate unrest, NOT to do ANYTHING actual meaningful, but to do something trite and superficial that liberals can close their ears off to anything else while they point and say "I did something".
Voting my guy, is the START of defense. It is not offense. The difference is CRUCIAL if effecting change is your actual goal. We need precise language, expectations, and goals to ward off the liberal duplicity and double speak. I'm on your side man, I'm just trying to flesh out some of the nuance your way.
And yo, don't at me, we gotta be better than that in an exchange of ideas. You don't know where I'm coming from. I just lost my house and every fucking thing Ive ever owned, and my hedgehogs, on the 5th of July (neighbors fireworks, FML fr). I'm a little busy trying to stay warm and clothed this winter instead of leading a protest, sorry if that doesn't fit your timetable, it doesn't fit mine either.