Your parties are seriously a mess, though. Sorry to say. Yes, come the vote under a FPTP duopoly I agree maximum impact is to vote for the lesser of the two, but I honestly don’t think much is going to change for you guys if all you do is vote.
I honestly don’t think much is going to change for you guys if all you do is vote.
As an American, I agree. That said, I find it hard to do more due to my situation.
But, voting is the beginning of political engagement, not the end. It’s probably time for a general strike, but even failing that, finding primary challengers (or being one), drafting voter initiatives and gathering signatures for all of the above, communicating with your representatives, legal protest. It’s also possible to work outside or even against the system, founding or being active in non-governmental community organizations, illegal protest, sabotage.
Even if we had a “perfect” voting system (Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem aside), there are going to be times when the majority compromise is just wrong, and “getting political” is how you change/survive that.
(I’m all for voting system improvements. I’m a big fan of Condorcet methods, and I’d like to see more direct democracy. We could even adapt a system like Debian’s “default option” of “more discussion” so that issues could remain open while a quorum was gathered / the voters suitably engaged to decide one way or another.)
Your parties are seriously a mess, though. Sorry to say. Yes, come the vote under a FPTP duopoly I agree maximum impact is to vote for the lesser of the two, but I honestly don’t think much is going to change for you guys if all you do is vote.
As an American, I agree. That said, I find it hard to do more due to my situation.
But, voting is the beginning of political engagement, not the end. It’s probably time for a general strike, but even failing that, finding primary challengers (or being one), drafting voter initiatives and gathering signatures for all of the above, communicating with your representatives, legal protest. It’s also possible to work outside or even against the system, founding or being active in non-governmental community organizations, illegal protest, sabotage.
Even if we had a “perfect” voting system (Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem aside), there are going to be times when the majority compromise is just wrong, and “getting political” is how you change/survive that.
(I’m all for voting system improvements. I’m a big fan of Condorcet methods, and I’d like to see more direct democracy. We could even adapt a system like Debian’s “default option” of “more discussion” so that issues could remain open while a quorum was gathered / the voters suitably engaged to decide one way or another.)