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comment by rob05c
rob05c  ·  3970 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: U.S. appeals court kills net neutrality

    our bipolar political infrastructure
America's First Past The Post voting system rewards representatives who appeal to ideologues. That's one of the problems.




_refugee_  ·  3969 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I agree in that I find our current voting method problematic. I'd much rather we went for a Borda count sort of method.

user-inactivated  ·  3970 days ago  ·  link  ·  

it doesn't, really. it rewards pragmatic representatives that appeal to the center and compete for campaign contributions. ideology plays no part except as post-hoc justification.

rob05c  ·  3970 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I disagree. Moderates are not insignificant, but moderates often become disinterested in both of the two extremist parties. Although negative campaigns portraying the other party's extremism can counteract this.

But I think extremism is more often rewarded in practice. For example, the rallying Fundamentalist Christian demographic in 2000, and the radically extremist Tea Party in 2010.