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Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

nytimes.com

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Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#41

Post by the_duke »

Personally, being more familiar with European parliamentary systems, I find it quite astounding that the canidate selection is such an open an public process.

In many countries, the parties select candidates internally and then present them to the public. Letting non-party members vote or register just before voting would be unthinkable there.

Then again, this is probably a necessary result of the US political system: majority voting rules, therefore (basically) only two parties, and of course, the US is huge and diverse.

The whole process is ridiculously long and expensive. But it's also a way to get people familiar with the candidates early on.

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#43

Post by afarrell »

icc97 wrote: post #27
thomasfoster96 wrote: post #18

What astounds me the most is that party membership in the United States is actually very high compared to most other countries (except for India). Fewer than 200,000 Australians would currently be members of any political party - representing less than 1.5% of the total voters (around 14 million) - and that's being very generous with estimates of party membership figures. Most AFL football clubs would have more membe…

I definitely agree. The article appears to be painting a very dark picture that 91% don't want the candidates. Where as this is just stating the obvious of what happens in every country that first puts forward a leader of a party that is contending to win the overall election.

How many people in the UK chose Theresa May as Prime Minister?

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#44

Post by matwood »

icc97 wrote: post #27
thomasfoster96 wrote: post #18

What astounds me the most is that party membership in the United States is actually very high compared to most other countries (except for India). Fewer than 200,000 Australians would currently be members of any political party - representing less than 1.5% of the total voters (around 14 million) - and that's being very generous with estimates of party membership figures. Most AFL football clubs would have more membe…

I definitely agree. The article appears to be painting a very dark picture that 91% don't want the candidates. Where as this is just stating the obvious of what happens in every country that first puts forward a leader of a party that is contending to win the overall election.

It is quite an interesting time. My liberal friends are all irked because Bernie got hosed by the DNC. My conservative friends are irked because the RNC did not do more to stop Trump. Talk about a role reversal with the party of the people and the party of the establishment.

Personally, I see so many problems with both candidates that it makes me sick that I have to vote for the least worst one.

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#45

Post by jaflo »

the_duke wrote: post #35

On a side note: I think this page is really well done. It's rare that that much (programming) effort is put into a simple newspaper article. Anyone agree?

Definitely, although the New York Times develops a lot more than other newspapers do: http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/category/interactive/

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#46

Post by afarrell »

ErrantX wrote: post #25

More depressing is the ~40% of the eligible electorate who don't vote at all.

Even more depressing than that is the larger number of eligible electorate who don't bother to vote in elections that are only for local and legislative candidates.

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#47

Post by eli_gottlieb »

jccalhoun wrote: post #38

I don't see a problem. They are the Republican and Democratic party candidates. The members of those parties can nominate whomever they want. There's nothing in the constitution that says anything about how political parties chose their candidates. Primaries didn't always exist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_pri...

>I don't see a problem. They are the Republican and Democratic party candidates. The members of those parties can nominate whomever they want.

If there's no legal constraint on how the parties select candidates for office, why should the parties have a legal monopoly on ballot-line presence?

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#49

Post by jpt1 »

afarrell wrote: post #43
icc97 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely agree. The article appears to be painting a very dark picture that 91% don't want the candidates. Where as this is just stating the obvious of what happens in every country that first puts forward a leader of a party that is contending to win the overall election.

How many people in the UK chose Theresa May as Prime Minister?

How many people have chosen any Prime Minister of the UK? Its just their constituents that vote for them, so ~50000 people at most.

Re: Only 9% of America Chose Trump and Clinton as the Nominees

#50

Post by stevenmays »

equivocates wrote: post #42

The article implies an indictment of Clinton & Trump. As if they were nominated inspire of the will of the vast majority of the people. But it's actually an indictment of the American public for failing to vote.

No, you have to be registered to a political party to vote in primaries in most states. If you're registered independent you don't get a chance to vote unless that state has open primaries.
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