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by dkjaudyeqooe 1274 days ago
Yes voters should just buckle down and vote for a big left/right party. Voters are getting too much democracy for their own good!
1 comments
throwaway2037 1274 days ago
Agree. Look at democracies where two parties dominate. The choices look awful. Where is the center represented in UK and US?
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jen20 1274 days ago
The center is represented in the UK by Labour, and by the Democrats in the US. The left is not represented in either country.
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rayiner 1274 days ago
The “center” or “left” of what? The US is a country that’s as religious as Iran where a decisive majority disapprove of the Supreme Court’s ban on school prayer: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/13/south-carol.... It’s a country where 68% of Americans wouldn’t pay even $10 per month in energy bills to mitigate climate change: https://www.cato.org/blog/68-americans-wouldnt-pay-10-month-...

You might not approve of where the “center” is in the US, but Democrats absolutely represent the center left and republicans represent the center right of the actual American electorate.

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reducesuffering 1274 days ago
Yes, but since the US is a more right-wing country than the rest of the developed world (healthcare, death penalty, taxes...), that would mean the Democrats are "centrist" and Republicans "right." Characterizing based on relativity to the developed world seems much more fitting, since we're discussing it between people mostly from other developed countries and in a thread about Britain.
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refurb 1273 days ago
Right wing on what measure?

With abortion restrictions in Europe, Europe looks further right than the US or Canada on that issue.

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reducesuffering 1273 days ago
By all three measures I mentioned above?

When it comes to abortion, it's more of a wash. By one measure, US is now more decentralized, less federal gov., thus more right wing. 13 US states have complete elective abortion bans at all times, thus much more right wing. Most other US states have somewhat more lenient abortion laws, roughly ~6 weeks longer in general, thus more left wing.

If that's your best and only example, it only substantiates my case.

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dkjaudyeqooe 1274 days ago
In reality we don't really know where center lies in either country given the circumstance.
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refurb 1273 days ago
The Democrats and Republicans already represent a range of the political spectrum, they aren’t monolithic.

And the US isn’t a Parliamentary democracy, so Congresspeople don’t have to vote along party lines (and often don’t).

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