[satyrun]

The USA is not a democracy, it is a constitutional republic. The architects of the system were highly suspicious of Athenian democracy and the tyranny of the majority.

Third parties don't really work in this system. If a third party gains transaction on an issue, one of the two main parties will largely adopt those policies. Otherwise, the 3rd party just splits the vote and the party least like the third party wins.

Everything is always changing too. Both parties have changed quite a lot in even the last 10 years.

Even further back look at an election map of JFK and Nixon in 1960. The states have practically all flipped. California and the west coast voted all Republican. The southern states voted all Democrat.

[bigbadfeline]

> The USA is not a democracy, it is a constitutional republic.

I'm not sure why this basic issue is constantly attacked with the nonsensical claim that a republic is not a democracy. There are two forms of democracy - direct (never tried in the West) and representative (aka republic). In short, for all intends and purposes, the US and all other western democracies are both democracies and republics. And that's that.

The confusion goes back all the way to Hamilton who might have been too busy effing around to understand the difference.

[harimau777]

Constitutional republic is a form of democracy. The parent post is largely unchanged if you find and replace "democracy" with "constitutional republic".

[ZeroGravitas]

They were suspicious of the tyranny of the majority because they were rich slave owning aristocrats i.e. they were the tyrants and wanted to remain so.