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The Lesser Evil

It has always amazed me how a country with a population of 330 million can do no better than choose between two old men who are both past their personal best and both slur words which is not good when taking on a powerful job with 4 years to run from next January.

I am 75 and I will fully admit I am not what I once was both physically and mentally and I bet that applies to 90% of others my age. They both need to be made to call it quits.
 
Laudable, but in states without a solid Democratic majority, her supporters will end up voting for Biden.

A US presidential election is the classic degenerate state of a FPTP electoral system, and tactical voting is the norm. Voters are not voting for a candidate, but rather voting against one of the two electable options. Trump won because voters really didn't want Hillary Clinton; Biden won because voters really didn't want Trump.

We use Ranked-choice instant runoff voting (i.e., STV with only one seat) for presidential elections here in Ireland and it works well in returning someone that most people would have approved of. I often wonder what would happen if the US adopted the same system: one thing I'm fairly sure of is that the President would be unlikely to be from one of the two big parties: American voters do try to prevent one party having all the levers of power.
 
My own view is that Trump won because of the "put America first" manifesto. A lot of Americans think that they are propping up the rest of the world and are fed up with it. Also Trump was bombastic enough to do what he wanted and didn't care who suffered in the process.

With Biden it seemed that the Dems elected him as a gift for many years of hard word and overlooked the fact that he is a geriatric who should be in genteel retirement.
 
Perhaps it is exactly because there are 330 million Americans, and 51 states. The presidency has to be the result of an infinite series of political compromises. One often speaks of "the French," or "the Italians," or "the Germans." Much more difficult to say "the Americans," since America originated and developed as a melting pot, except that the many elements have by no means all fused together into a single, homogeneous substance.
 
In the East, age, even great age, is seen as a plus - all the wisdom that has been gained. Age = something like senility is a western thing.

The US voting system - odd, in the extreme. Go and dig and see how some votes count for squillions more in Presidential elections. Not a criticism, just a statement of fact.
 
Mick P said:
It has always amazed me how a country with a population of 330 million can do no better than choose between two old men who are both past their personal best and both slur words which is not good when taking on a powerful job with 4 years to run from next January.

I am 75 and I will fully admit I am not what I once was both physically and mentally and I bet that applies to 90% of others my age. They both need to be made to call it quits.
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For me it is still about what you vote for, not who.
 
PaulMB said:
Perhaps it is exactly because there are 330 million Americans, and 51 states. The presidency has to be the result of an infinite series of political compromises. One often speaks of "the French," or "the Italians," or "the Germans." Much more difficult to say "the Americans," since America originated and developed as a melting pot, except that the many elements have by no means all fused together into a single, homogeneous substance.
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Identification has little to do with any homogenous reality. Whether in the US, UK or Isreal, the idea of any sort of unity is a series of millennia old myths around a belief that is at odds with modern reality
 
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