[pldr2244]

Actually, quite a number of places around the world still engage in healthier politics than America. Want to know why America suffers so much from such partisanship and extreme ideologies?

It’s your non-mandatory voting.

Don’t blame the internet, which serves other countries well. Blame your special political system for incentivising the rise of extremes over the rise of politicians who “have” to care about the majority.

[volkl48]

There's only about 10 countries in the world which have enforced mandatory voting, and a couple more where it's on the books but never enforced.

And plenty of those are not exactly examples of good governance or non-extreme politics. (Ex: Brazil).

So I don't feel your claim is very well supported by the evidence.

[andrewzah]

> It’s your non-mandatory voting.

Erm, no. What actually kills voter turnout is lack of polling venues. If voting were a quick, painless process on a national holiday, we would see much higher turnouts.

As it is, the current situation is so bad one can't help but think it was purposefully engineered to be that way. Voting should not have to take hours due to lack of venues.

Hopefully mail-in ballots will become the norm, allowing people to vote easily without having to go to a venue.

[3131s]

FPTP voting is a the problem, sure, but mandatory voting solves nothing.