What religions would we accept in the White House?

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I agree completely with you Monty. I just used the 3% as an example because even 3% would, at this point, mean that neither the Republicans or the Democrats would have a majority in either house of Congress. Add in that the Greens aren't the only other political party in the U.S., and you are talking about a whole bunch of potential seats. As it is, I'd say that somewhere around 5%-7% of all votes go to third party canidates - and I agree that there would be more if it actually resulted in those groups having a voice in the government.

I think it wouldn't matter if a 3rd party never played a major role in government - just enough to make some level of compromise possible. I'd be totally fine if we had a Senate that consisted of 47 Republicans, 47 Democrats, and 6 Independent/3rd party canidates.

 

Well, the American system has the checks and balances built in differently than in a parliamentary system, so you can have a situation with a Republican President and a Democratic House of Representatives. We don't have that in Canada. Our system really boils down to a two party system as well, whereas some people (me for one) would like to see a system of proportional representation that gives third parties more of an influence. Of course, that would open the door to all sorts of religious nutjobs (me for one, at least in the view of some here) to swoop in and influence public policy. Of course, it'd also open the door for the Marijuana party . . .

Sorry to have this slide away from the original thread topic . . .

 

When all things are said and done all democracies seems to boil down to a two party system. Sure, Sweden has several parties but they are either left, or right and any government is either a full coalation or the biggest left wing party rule with the support but not inclusion of the greens and commies. Many different parties, end result same as in the US though, either one side or the other wins.

What is nice is that with a parlimentary system you can switch the balance within hte blocks. If oyu are tired of X you can vote for Y without actually helping Z which you despise.

 

We have actually a three-party system in Finland with the national coalition, social democrats and the center party all being nearly on an equal footing.

EDIT: Oh and as of yet we've not had any pre-election alliances on the national level, and hopefully won't have either.

 

Sounds like fun. Who's invited?

 

Chandos, you know you're always invited to come up and party here in Edmonton with me, as are all of my fellow posters here on SP!!

Actually, Joaqin, the way our system here in Canada works, if the vote is split between two right wing parties, that opens the door for the left wing party to glide right in, which leads some leaders of the rignt wing parties to say "a vote for the other right winger is as good as a vote for the lefties!" I hate the "first past the post" system here in Canada.