this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
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[–] [email protected] 46 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Fuck, the U.K. got several new PMs without even an election during the last few years!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That's not a good thing in a democracy.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Shh shh, just let them have this one. It's bad enough to be in the UK as it is. :p

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

People don't vote for a prime minister. They vote for local representatives, the representatives are in parties that negotiate with each other to build a majority and form a government, and the Prime Minister is effectively the person that the representatives agree will lead the government. They don't have presidential powers, they are just a leader of the negotiated government.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Don't worry, electorate made their feelings known when it was time.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 months ago (3 children)

When Kamala wins, I'm curious if it will encourage a shorter election cycle, so people are still excited about their candidate when voting starts.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I don't think anybody actually wants our elections to be perpetual. I imagine it'd be easy to fix, except for the fact that longer elections cost more and this means the richest have more sway. I bet they'd resist.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

That, plus like everything else in America, an entire business has sprung up around running federal elections. Longer campaigns require more staffers, strategists, pollsters, advertisers, etc. It's a billion dollar industry unto itself.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Time to stop handing control of society to rich people who lack experience of being a normal human being.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

It was time for that fifty years ago, but today would be fine too

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Nobody handed it to them, they took it thousands of years ago and have had it ever since.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I think the parties and the companies that own them want the elections to be perpetual, to keep us distracted and fighting each other. It also gives the companies a lot more time to ~~bribe~~ donate to candidates.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Honestly, if it wasn't one of the most powerful and influential countries of the world, it would be helluva entertainment. I'd invest in popcorn stocks.

On the other hand, if it wasn't one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world nobody would care.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

When Kamala wins

Love that optimism.

But honestly though, I wonder how many "liberals" (let alone people who were undecided, even though it's hard to imagine they exist) won't be too happy about a black woman as the candidate

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

When Kamala wins

Love that optimism.

OC might be non native speaker. There is e.g. in German a conjunction (wenn) which is used to indicate both, temporal (when) or conditial meaning (if).

[–] verity_kindle 8 points 4 months ago

Today I learned! That is a useful bit of help for daily life. Danke.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

I wasn’t a fan in 2020, but just seeing her now is kinda relaxing. 80+ President? She held a place of reassurance in that.

.

We’ve had so much chaos and stress. Against that context, seeing her relaxes me, has for a bit now.

.

High odds Whitmer will be the other side of that ticket after August.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 4 months ago

Hopefully a few of them remember not voting for Clinton in 2016 with loathing and shame, and see this as their chance to make amends.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Too short election terms make for a dysfunctional government. With the usual 4-5 years most countries use half of that term is already spent campaigning for the next, forcing the government to do anything unpopular (but often necessary) during the first years, and then tone it down and do popular things else they have no chance of getting re elected.

If you shortened that further the politicians would be forced into a perpetual state of pandering to the voter base instead of actually governing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I think they're referring to the length of the campaigning season, not the presidential term

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

In parlimentary systems the election is less about the person, and more about the party itself. You don't need 6 months to present a candidate.

[–] freeman -4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Its also possible to not have government for years!!! YU's political diversity must blow poor muricans' minds!!

[–] Tar_alcaran 8 points 4 months ago

It's really not. When we say "no government", what we usually mean is "no new government has been formed out of the elected new Parliament, so the old ministers stay on.

It's not like US government shutdown where everyone literally stops working.