Spector loses

[TomCat84]

Also, the US Constitution mandates two year terms for the House of Representatives, and staggers the terms for Senators, so elections are basically held every two years (not including random state and local level elections in odd years), which is a vastly different system from the British model.

 

[sbat]

The United States has the longest elections in the world. I don't know of any other country that starts so far in advance of the election. Britain called their election and in about 5 weeks it was all over. Canada does it this way too. I don't know how you guys can stand it.....it's like the energizer bunny it just goes on and on and on....

Well, journalists and talking heads on the news were part of the Stimulus package. The election season was to be stretched so that they would have more work.

 

[sbat]

Cuz the media figured out that the longer they drag it on, then the more money they make. The only thing that drives ratings for the corporate media more than elections is natural disasters, and they can't control those. (thank God)

They can. You think that volcano in Iceland erupted by itself?

 

[Novaboy]

Also, the US Constitution mandates two year terms for the House of Representatives, and staggers the terms for Senators, so elections are basically held every two years (not including random state and local level elections in odd years), which is a vastly different system from the British model.

I know all of this, I just don't know how Americans can stand to almost constantly be in election mode. We don't have the primaries in the parliamentary system. We don't even elect our prime minister. We vote for a local representative that belongs to a particular party. Which ever party gets the most seats forms the governement. party members vote on the leader of the party. That person becomes the Prime Minister. That can be changed without a vote from the public. The party decides who the leader is.

 

[TomCat84]

I know all of this, I just don't know how Americans can stand to almost constantly be in election mode. We don't have the primaries in the parliamentary system. We don't even elect our prime minister. We vote for a local representative that belongs to a particular party. Which ever party gets the most seats forms the governement. party members vote on the leader of the party. That person becomes the Prime Minister. That can be changed without a vote from the public. The party decides who the leader is.

Seems a bit undemocratic to me

 

[Bbucko]

Seems a bit undemocratic to me

It's based on the parliamentary procedures established in the UK, which was viewed with distaste by more than a few of the founding fathers: remember George Washington's warnings against the formation of political parties?

It's also helpful to distinguish between Prime Ministers and Presidents; France, for instance, has both a PM elected by the various parties in the National Assembly and a President elected by popular vote. This frequently leads to a divided government (at least it did when I lived there).

 

[B_talltpaguy]

It's based on the parliamentary procedures established in the UK, which was viewed with distaste by more than a few of the founding fathers: remember George Washington's warnings against the formation of political parties?

Dude was right too... I would love to see us outlaw political parties... Candidates should run on their own record/personal platform... In the age of the internet, and a gazillion unused cable channels, it's not like it would be hard to get their message out to people for cheap.

 

[Novaboy]

Seems a bit undemocratic to me

Not really, we vote for a person to represent us. The party with the most seats forms the government. What is undemocratic about that. The prime minister is the leader of the winning party so he leads the country. If there is a change (which rarely happens) an election would most likely be called fairly soon to let the public have a say.

What is undemocratic are those electoral votes! You would think that since you vote directly for the president the person with the most votes should win. The way the system is now, means that some states are more important than others.

NB