Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

People are weird.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Trump should be leading, not lying.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Open Thread: Minor Campaign Diversions

Open Thread: Minor Campaign Diversions

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Olivia Nuzzi has a gift for spotting the moments when a political figure is most vulnerable, and I hope her string continues here:

… Thirty hours from the election he is on track to lose, the president made his third of five scheduled stops across the Midwest and Southeast on the Lord’s day of rest: Michigan in the morning, Iowa in the afternoon, North Carolina at sunset, followed by Georgia and Florida after that. After months grounded in the White House due to the coronavirus pandemic and a weekend confined to Walter Reed due to the coronavirus itself, Trump has attempted to make up for lost time and for the gap in the polls, holding as many Make America Great Again rallies as he can manage each day.

The rallies are a means of energizing voters, yes, but just as importantly, they’re a means of energizing the president. The race in North Carolina is close now, as it was in 2016, when Trump led by about one point and won by 3.7. Now, Biden leads by 0.3 percent…

MAGA rallies follow similar scripts and similar staging no matter where they’re held or what the president is supposed to be talking about. At arenas and airports, the press pen may be an island, surrounded by the crowd on all sides, or it may be at the very back of the event space, which was the case on Sunday in North Carolina. The crowd formed an arch around the metal barricades, protecting the Fake News risers (one in front for national media and one behind for local) and four rows of tables and chairs with electric plugs and bottles of hand sanitizer and sheets of paper that say “TRUMP PENCE” and the Wi-Fi code.

Behind here was the flag, which looked to be at least 20 feet tall. It had been tied at each corner to the coils of two large green and orange lifts. “It’s windy here!” Trump said when he first greeted the crowd. And it was. In effect, this created a patriotic sail, picking up momentum with each gust of air until it launched. Stagehands and Secret Service agents dashed to the scene to tame the symbol of America’s greatness. One man grabbed the lower corner on the right, and as it waved, the flag seemed to swallow him. Then there were two men, then three, then four. They wrestled the flag to the green lift, folded it into order, then placed caution tape around the area…

Also, because I was raised Irish, I personally find this both comforting & satisfying:

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    chopper

    “This is probably the worst period for third parties in modern American history,” Ralph Nader says

    well doesn’t my heart just fucking bleed.

  2. 2.

    HumboldtBlue

    Behind here was the flag, which looked to be at least 20 feet tall. It had been tied at each corner to the coils of two large green and orange lifts. “It’s windy here!” Trump said when he first greeted the crowd. And it was. In effect, this created a patriotic sail, picking up momentum with each gust of air until it launched. Stagehands and Secret Service agents dashed to the scene to tame the symbol of America’s greatness. One man grabbed the lower corner on the right, and as it waved, the flag seemed to swallow him. Then there were two men, then three, then four. They wrestled the flag to the green lift, folded it into order, then placed caution tape around the area…

    All we are is dust in the wind.

    This is a beat we can all dance to.

  3. 3.

    Scout211

    I stopped at the library today and saw the parking lot full of cars at the Veteran’s Hall where early voting is taking place in my county.

    As of yesterday 11,045, 804 ballots have been returned in California. That is 49.3% of all the ballots sent out. It looks like there will still be lots of voters voting at the polls tomorrow.

  5. 5.

    Matt McIrvin

    Massachusetts Question 2 would establish ranked-choice voting in the state. This could help third parties immensely by defusing their perverse electoral effect. Independent and minor-party candidates could endorse major-party candidates as a second choice (Lisa Savage is doing this in Maine right now), or even ask for voters’ second-place votes.

    I’m for it, not because I’m particularly down on the two-party system, but because (1) I know a lot of people who are, and this would keep that tendency from being such a fatal troll bomb, and (2) it would lead to higher-quality third-party candidates because they would no longer have to be people willing to either deny or encourage the spoiler effect. This has to be good for political health in general.

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “This is probably the worst period for third parties in modern American history,” Ralph Nader says

    only the good die young, I guess

  10. 10.

    Calouste

    “This is probably the worst period for third parties personal vanity runs in modern American history,” Ralph Nader says

    FTFY, Ralph. If third parties were serious, they’d start at the local level and work their way up from there, as well as try to reform the voting system away from winner-takes-all.

  13. 13.

    lamh36

    The fact that Eminem licensed the song to the Biden camp tells you all you need to know. ONE SHOT! GO OUT AND VOTE!!

     

    Alright now Em!

    ETA: Oh and unlike Chump co, Biden camp asked for permission and was granted it FIRST!

     

    One Opportunity | Joe Biden For President 2020 https://youtu.be/5p3iMZBzW7M via YouTube

  15. 15.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Ralph used to be a hero of mine back in the 70s. As a student I was involved with the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) that he set up on college campuses around the country. I thought they did a lot of good.

    I will never forgive him for what he did to the 2000 race.

    And come to think of it, I’m not sure he did anything useful since the 70s anyway.

  17. 17.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    The Romans would be freaking right now at the bad omen that was the flag falling down behind the Orange Furby.

    And with all due respect to Nuzzi, where are her horse race numbers coming from?  I hope to crap she’s not cherry picking something to promote the horse race narrative.

  19. 19.

    Citizen Alan

    I suspect the flag was just trying to get away from Shitgibbon before he could have the chance to molest it?

  20. 20.

    Steve in the ATL

    1. I have explained daylight savings time to him repeatedly, but my dog STILL thinks it was his dinner time a half hour ago;
    2. In Georgia replacement senate seat news (part I), Kelly Loeffler has gone all-in on her trump love.  Her ads tout her “100%” agreement with trump on everything.  On the other hand, she has an endorsement from former DGD (“Damn Good Dog”) Herschel Walker, who, no kidding, has mental health problems; and
    3. In Georgia replacement senate seat news (part II), this race is a jungle primary with a couple of dozen candidates listed.  The first D one sees is Matt Lieberman; one has to hunt a bit to find Raphael Warnock, the real D in the race.  I was clicking through the ballot quickly, just checking the D candidate in each race and not paying that much attention and accidentally clicked on Lieberman at first.  Fortunately, I have an IQ well into the double digits and realized my mistake in time to correct it.  Still makes me wonder how many loyal D’s will vote for that shithead unintentionally….
  22. 22.

    Kent

    @chopper: When was their “best” period according to Nader?

    George Wallace in 1968?  He won 5 states and carried 45 electoral votes on an overt platform of white supremacy.

  23. 23.

    guachi

    Can we have a BJ equivalent of March Madness brackets where we get to pick winners of races and states?

  26. 26.

    Citizen Alan

    The greatest source of personal humiliation and embarrassment in my entire life is that I was taken in by Nader in 2000. Even though I lived in Mississippi where Gore had no shot at all (and even though I had intense disdain for Gore and especially Lieberman), I still regret casting my vote for Nader.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    @Steve in the ATL: re: point 3, a lot of jurisdictions randomize the order in which candidates appear on the ballot, so maybe you were just unlucky to be presented with a Lieberman at the top.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @HumboldtBlue:

    In the ‘60s, my kid brother painted his VW Beetle to look like the American flag. He was pulled over by a Chicago cop, and spent a night in jail. The ACLU took his case on First Amendment grounds. Their exhibits included dozens of examples of flag-bedecked merchandise, from shirts and scarves to ashtrays and key rings, all available for cheap at local merchants. No-brainer of a case, but it generated a bit of media attention in Chicagoland at the time.

  30. 30.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    In parliamentary governments with umpteen different political parties, do they actually represent umpteen different governing philosophies? I know the world is more complex than our binary liberal / Cleek’s Law divide, but how many subdivisions can there really be?

  31. 31.

    Baud

    If it weren’t for the fascism, Trump’s string of campaign rally foibles and mishaps would be quite amusing.

  34. 34.

    Kent

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m not sure about ranked choice voting.  I know I don’t generally like the “jungle primary” we have here in WA where the top two candidates of any party rise to the final.  Even when we get two Dems in the general like we have now with the race for Lt. Governor in WA because the GOP didn’t have their shit together and couldn’t agree on a single candidate.

    I do like party primaries at the presidential level but I’m not sure they really attract the necessary attention at the state level for more minor candidates.

  35. 35.

    Kattails

    Love this– watching a John Oliver piece, someone in the comments said:  “Trump’s entire presidency has felt like being tied to a chair, watching a toddler play with a loaded pistol”.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    Just heard about that the Texas GOP could not even get be most partisan judge in the country to go along with their vote invalidation scheme. I’m pleasantly surprised.

  39. 39.

    Martin

    Businesses in LA are boarding up ahead of tomorrow. That alone is quite the indictment of the current administration that they believe there is a large enough chance of violence that it’s worth doing.

    My sense is that everything is going to be fine. Emotionally, I’m a fucking wreck. Odds are pretty high that Biden will win, but the consequences of Trump winning are so much higher that the odds aren’t comforting.

  41. 41.

    Kent

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:In parliamentary governments with umpteen different political parties, do they actually represent umpteen different governing philosophies? I know the world is more complex than our binary liberal / Cleek’s Law divide, but how many subdivisions can there really be?

    In parliamentary systems, the coalition building and compromise occurs AFTER the election in the process of building a governing coalition.  And it happens between the party leaders, without input from voters.

    In our system it mostly happens BEFORE the election at the primary campaign level with the direct involement of the voters who are choosing between Sanders, Warren, Biden, Klobuchar, etc. while at the same time, each of those candidates are trying to build a winning coalition of voters.

    Arguably our system is more democratic in that voters have more of a direct say in the structure of the winning coalition.  Compared to parliamentary systems where all the coalition building is done after the election.

    In any event you wind up at the same point with the need to put together a coalition that represents over 50% of the populace or voting jurisdictions in the case of the electoral college.   Whether it is assembling an electoral college win, or a parliamentary majority.  It’s still a numbers game and you need 50% +1.

    They get to be purist and choose a small party candidate who more closely matches their views, but then have little input in the negotiated process of government formation.  We participate more directly in the coalition building in the primaries, but then have to endorse the final result which may not actually match our exact preferences.

  43. 43.

    negative 1

    @Kent: I like it, as it tends to keep the crazy at bay.  I say this knowing full well that I’m extremely left wing and will never get what I want because of the same dynamics.  But, I’d honestly rather keep a Qanon nut away from power more than I care about getting some of my policies enacted, sadly.  I feel like it’s the right that nominates the nuts more than the ultra-left gets a candidate through, anyway.

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    I had the same reaction as Steve when I voted last week, and was worried that some low-info Dems would vote Lieberman instead of scrolling down to Warnock. Candidates are listed alphabetically, I’m pretty sure. Raphael should have changed his name to Aarnock when he still could.

  46. 46.

    Eolirin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I don’t think there are more, or at least many more, divisions than exist in our system, we have plenty of factions inside both parties, and those would just be smaller parties in another system. And a lot of those parties aren’t necessarily about different governing philosophy, but about focus on specific issues. Issues are legion, even if there’s only so many ways to govern.

  47. 47.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: Yeah, I’ve seen several places putting up plywood today. A pretty sad commentary on where we are as a country, but hopefully it won’t be necessary and we’ll all be out in the streets celebrating instead.

  50. 50.

    Mary G

    @Steve in the ATL: My cats are the same; they go by how it’s been since the sun went down, and get very agitated when it’s so much longer.

    Ditto to everybody saying it’s good to see you, and hope Mrs. Steve is well.

  51. 51.

    scav

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Does it make it easier if you think of different rankings of priorities as well as strategies for achieving general goals?  Greens emphasizing environmental aspects uppermost, with another group prioritizing the economy over all by strict laissez faire theory, a managed economy option and yet another wanting to push flattening social inequality.first . .  etc etc.

    ETA. as for governing philosophies, where are our monarchists?  Or, are the goopers now a sort of fascist monarchist party?

  52. 52.

    Baud

    @Kent:

    Arguably our system is more democratic in that voters have more of a direct say in the structure of the winning coalition.  Compared to parliamentary systems where all the coalition building is done after the election.

    My understanding is that in multiparty parliamentary systems, party discipline is more important and is enforced by various rules and norms.  I think a lot of liberals who support that system don’t realize that aspect of it.

    In better times, I would be interested in thinking about the benefits and disadvantages of different systems.  Often, the discussion of our two party system ends up being a bitching about the absence of ponies.

  53. 53.

    dmsilev

    @negative 1:

    Because of acts of intolerance and even violence, honest and hardworking Americans are sometimes afraid to put Trump signs in their yards. Members of our White House staff have been thrown out of restaurants just for serving their country. Even big tech companies are now politically censoring us. All this from the supposedly tolerant left,” she said.

    Boo fucking hoo. Coming a day or two after her husband celebrating a bunch of his supporters who literally tried to force a bus off the road, to give just one of a long long list of examples, she can go fuck herself.

  56. 56.

    raven

    @HumboldtBlue:

      • In new book, former NFL star Herschel Walker reveals personality disorder
      • Dissociative identity disorder was formerly know as multiple personality disorder

      Ex-wife says he threatened her; he says he has no memory but doesn’t deny it

  58. 58.

    Kent

    @SiubhanDuinne:I had the same reaction as Steve when I voted last week, and was worried that some low-info Dems would vote Lieberman instead of scrolling down to Warnock. Candidates are listed alphabetically, I’m pretty sure. Raphael should have changed his name to Aarnock when he still could.

    Do they really list them alphabetically?   I think here in WA they are randomized by precinct or something.

  60. 60.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Fuck Ralph Nader, the man with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on his hands.

  61. 61.

    raven

    @Baud: Did you watch the shit in Santa Monica after George Floyd? Fuckers in SUV’s were trashing windows and loading goods up. It’s a dog-eat-dog motherfucker out there.

  64. 64.

    HumboldtBlue

    @raven:

    Thanks, didn’t know he had a book.

    A tweet from Soonergrunt via Tom Levenson.

    Sonnergrunt thinks 2020 should be an adjective.

    So, @MerriamWebster has included “irregardless” as a word in the dictionary. Fucking 2020, man. It just keeps giving. Here’s a new word for you; 2020-adj. meaning: crazy; unreasonable; out of control “I had blind date, but he was 2020, so I went to the bathroom and snuck out”

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @raven:

    Race riots in LA are not unusual.  Maybe this election will bring out the same conflict as a racial conflict would, but I wouldn’t have assumed so.

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    @NotMax: In grad school, we used to say that the true final exam for your dissertation was not the defense but whether you could open the champagne bottle afterwards without putting your eye out.

    Putting out someone else’s eye was fine, of course.

  69. 69.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Baud:

     

    I wouldn’t think LA would be a hotbed for violence with respect to the election.

    Unless Trump wins.

  70. 70.

    Kent

    @Baud:

    My understanding is that in multiparty parliamentary systems, party discipline is more important and is enforced by various rules and norms.  I think a lot of liberals who support that system don’t realize that aspect of it.

    In better times, I would be interested in thinking about the benefits and disadvantages of different systems.  Often, the discussion of our two party system ends up being a bitching about the absence of ponies.

    Ultimately every democratic system has to have some sort of process of compromise and coalition building to get to 50% + 1.  Otherwise you have dictatorial minority rule.

    We do ours up front in the 2-party primaries.  They do theirs after the fact in the process of building a governing coalition.  Obviously there are differences, but I suspect they are really more apparent then real.

    The flaws in our system are the undemocratic legacies of slavery like the electoral college and Senate, not the 2-party system per se.  Get rid of the electoral college and democratize the Senate (each state gets 1 senator and then one additional Senator for every 4 Congressmen, for example) and most of the problems with our system go away

    A world in which California gets 13 Senators and Wyoming gets 1 is a world I can live with.

  71. 71.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I am not sold on the merits ranked choice voting. I don’t want to encourage destructive 3rd party candidates.

    One advantage of ranked choice voting is that it makes 3rd party candidates less destructive; they no longer function as a spoiler for the ideologically closest major party.

  76. 76.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @scav: Yeah, that makes sense.

    Anybody else ever get one of those surveys that asks you to rank your legislative priorities? I end up checking every box. There are so many problems that have reached emergency status that I don’t know how you could set priorities.

    Your curtains are on fire, there’s a grizzly bear trying to break down the door, your toddler is about to stick a knife into an electrical socket and you just noticed a nest of murder hornets on the ceiling. What are your priorities?

  81. 81.

    Risk On The Big Board (formerly Rome Again)

    @scav: Yes, I’ve been calling them Monarchists. They want him to have a 3rd term and another…

  82. 82.

    Joe Falco

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Still makes me wonder how many loyal D’s will vote for that shithead unintentionally

    I would hope they caught at least one of the many Warnock commercials that’s aired, including the one that shows viewers where his name is on the ballot!

  83. 83.

    White & Gold Purgatorian

    @HumboldtBlue: What do the rules say about flying half of a flag?
    My mom and I passed a house this morning – Trump sign in yard – and they had a strange looking flag flying from their porch. We were headed to the Apple orchard so when we came back I slowed down to get a better look. Swear to any gods you like, the top half was Old Glory with the field of stars and the stripes right below it, but the bottom half was half of the Confederate battle flag. Now I wonder if someone is selling the stupid things or if these yahoos cut up a US flag to make that one. Idiots.

  84. 84.

    Fair Economist

    @schrodingers_cat: The point of ranked choice is that it makes 3rd party candidates nondestructive. Fringe supporters get to the voting booth and will make choices about the real candidates. It will also shut up the “democrats would win if they were socialist” crowd when the socialists get 5% first round support.

  86. 86.

    TS (the original)

    @guachi:

    The horse race of the year in Australia today. Melbourne Cup. Quite a different race this year. Covid-safe – No spectators.

    Gives us a time out from worrying about what will happen to the world if we have to suffer any more trump.

    Meanwhile I’m still for Biden  412EV

  87. 87.

    Kent

    @Fair Economist:@schrodingers_cat: The point of ranked choice is that it makes 3rd party candidates nondestructive. Fringe supporters get to the voting booth and will make choices about the real candidates. It will also shut up the “democrats would win if they were socialist” crowd when the socialists get 5% first round support.

    It wouldn’t shut anyone up.  Changing the process if the results end up the same isn’t going to change anything.  The destructive assholes will just find new ways to tear down more centrist candidates that have larger support.

    None of them are going to say “Oh gee, you are right.  Our radical positions only get 5% support.  I guess we need to re-evaluate and get behind the Klobuchar wing of the party.”  They will just double down and find new ways to be destructive that we haven’t thought of yet.  Count on it.

  88. 88.

    HumboldtBlue

    @TS (the original):

    The horse race of the year in Australia today. Melbourne Cup. Quite a different race this year. Covid-safe – No spectators.

    I think it was Deadspin who used to do a photo spread after the race was over and the drinking was done. Lots of ruined dress clothes.

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @negative 1: Not sure how I can be done with her when I never saw her as anything other than a gold-digging birther bitch, but I am.

    Time to get the Trump trash out of the people’s house!

  94. 94.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:

    Yeah, I didn’t think partisanship was a major fault line in LA.

    I don’t think the problem is partisanship; it’s that gangs of criminals will use any public demonstration after the election as cover for their lawbreaking.  We saw stuff like that during the BLM protests.  The police put all their effort into dealing with the protesters and weren’t there to stop looters from breaking into shops and stealing stuff.  The looting was blamed on BLM, but it was almost all opportunistic looting by people who were otherwise unconnected to the protests.

  95. 95.

    glory b

    @schrodingers_cat: I listened to a piece on npr about ranked choice voting, reporting about an election in Ireland.

    It was VERY convoluted process, I’m not sure American voters would go for it.

    My main takeaway, I think American voters are too invested in being “excited” about a candidate for ranked choice voting. In many cases, ranked choice voting results in electing a candidate who wasn’t the first choice of a majority of voters, I believe that’s what happened in the election they highlighted. Having elected officials that the majority of voters were only lukewarm about and not invested in seems too far removed from our way of voting.

  96. 96.

    Calouste

    @glory b: That’s not true. It is possible that a candidate that isn’t the first choice of the most voters wins (that’s the major point of the system over winner-takes-all), but it happens only in a few percent of the races. I don’t have a link handy, but Australia has been using ranked choice for decades, so you can look up the numbers for that.

  97. 97.

    Roger Moore

    @Kent:

    Do they really list them alphabetically? I think here in WA they are randomized by precinct or something.

    Here in California, there’s a whole elaborate process for randomizing the order of the candidates.  It seems like a really good system.  The only problem is that it makes life more difficult for elections officials, since each precinct can wind up needing a different ballot.  This is one reason I like LA County’s decision to use ballot printing devices; it makes the whole process much simpler.

  98. 98.

    trnc

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    In parliamentary governments with umpteen different political parties, do they actually represent umpteen different governing philosophies? I know the world is more complex than our binary liberal / Cleek’s Law divide, but how many subdivisions can there really be?

    Yeah, I don’t really get how people think any 3rd party candidate is really, really, really going to be the one who has everything that everyone wants. There’s a reason we’ve been basically whittled down to 2 parties.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @dmsilev:

    Everyone should be able to open champagne bottles safely.  It’s very simple:

    1. Remove the foil
    2. Loosen, but do not remove, the wire cage covering the cork
    3. Grab the neck of the bottle in one hand and the cork between the thumb and forefinger of the other hand
    4. Twist the cork while gently pulling it away from the neck
    5. The combination of twisting, pulling, and gas pressure inside the bottle should get the cork out easily

    The cork comes out with a celebratory pop but stays in your hand rather than flying across the room.  This method also minimizes the chance of generating a champagne-wasting shower.  This is how I was taught to do it when I worked as a waiter, and we could quickly open enough bottles for a whole banquet without a single incident.

  100. 100.

    Dan B

    @Kent: A client of mine said that in a parliamentary system you get brighter leaders because people will only vote for candidates whose IQ is no more than ten points higher than their own.  In a parliament those elected will vote for another ten points higher.

    I look at Bojo and Netanyahu and think they don’t have empathy so who cares about the IQ?

  104. 104.

    Dopey-o

    @Roger Moore: 

    Everyone should be able to open champagne bottles safely. It’s very simple:

    Remove the foil and the wire. Cover the cork with a small towel and hold towel with one hand. Remove the cork in any manner you prefer.
    Also useful for mopping up after idiots who like to shake the bottle to compensate for erectile dysfunction.

  106. 106.

    jonas

    “This is probably the worst period for third parties in modern American history,” Ralph Nader says

    Well, we’ll see going forward if the Republican party effectively splits into two new parties — a far-right, National Front-style, alt-right, nativist party, and a center-right, mainstream country-club conservative party fronted by the Never Trumpers. The Never Trumpers, despite their media savvy, are clearly in the minority (10%?) of the current Trumpist Republican party, so they’ll either have to 1. try to form their own group which will be about as effective as the Green or Libertarian parties currently are or 2. continue to  caucus with Democrats for the foreseeable future until the Trumpists are somehow reduced to irrelevance through demographic decline and/or a combination of corruption and incompetence that renders them effectively irrelevant and then rebuild from there.

  107. 107.

    Calouste

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The main benefit of having multiple parties and the resulting coalition governments is that the flavor of government varies from center-right to center-left depending on which parties end up in the coalition, as opposed to varying between centrist and extreme-right as it does in the US.

    And there are varying reasons why multiple parties are successful, Spain has strong regional parties in the Basque Country and Catalonia for example.

  108. 108.

    glory b

    @Calouste: I won’t dispute that, heaven knows I’m not an expert. And, to be honest, that was the outcome of the one race they were following.

    Interestingly, the candidate thought she had lost and was driving to the polling place to make a concession speech when she got a call on her cell phone telling her she won.

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