Basically I think the Australia can be saved by the people voting but I don’t think the USA system can. We have some problem with gerrymandering in the lower and upper houses, voting is not exactly proportional because of that, but there are actually minor parties and independents sitting in parliament and holding the balance of power. Just this last week the governing Labor party is trying to pass budget and tax reform, which they can only do by getting the leftist Greens party to vote with them. This tax reform shifts taxation away from income and onto assets such as property and shares to make things more equitable.
We have our problems, sure, but an unchallenged head of state and a failing democracy is not one of them. If conservatives or centrists are in government here it’s because the Australian people voted for them, and every person’s vote counted via preference flows if their #1 choice didn’t make it in. If conservatives or centrists are in government in the USA it’s because there was literally nobody else to vote for.
You also vote for the party here, not the prime minister, and the party can throw out their prime minister any time they want. Or the governor general can fire them. Both of these things have actually happened in recent times. As far as I’m aware, Nixon after watergate was the only president to actually lose office and he resigned rather than getting thrown out.
Basically I think the Australia can be saved by the people voting but I don’t think the USA system can. We have some problem with gerrymandering in the lower and upper houses, voting is not exactly proportional because of that, but there are actually minor parties and independents sitting in parliament and holding the balance of power. Just this last week the governing Labor party is trying to pass budget and tax reform, which they can only do by getting the leftist Greens party to vote with them. This tax reform shifts taxation away from income and onto assets such as property and shares to make things more equitable.
We have our problems, sure, but an unchallenged head of state and a failing democracy is not one of them. If conservatives or centrists are in government here it’s because the Australian people voted for them, and every person’s vote counted via preference flows if their #1 choice didn’t make it in. If conservatives or centrists are in government in the USA it’s because there was literally nobody else to vote for.
You also vote for the party here, not the prime minister, and the party can throw out their prime minister any time they want. Or the governor general can fire them. Both of these things have actually happened in recent times. As far as I’m aware, Nixon after watergate was the only president to actually lose office and he resigned rather than getting thrown out.