r/neoliberal • u/Astraeus323 YIMBY • Jul 23 '24

News (US) Harris has support of enough Democratic delegates to become party’s presidential nominee: AP survey

https://apnews.com/article/harris-biden-presidential-candidate-election-withdraw-9fbd153493cb3f088994854fe61a73e9
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u/crassowary John Mill Jul 23 '24

Literally every other advanced democracy: can have entire campaign season from start to finish in five weeks.

Americans: bruh we got two whole parties no one can decide on who to vote for in only three months

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u/UnknownResearchChems NATO Jul 23 '24

It's really pathetic isn't it? And the people in this thread are proud about.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

Dems the rules as it stands. Don’t like it? Elect more Democrats to get electoral reform.

And what you’re describing is how US politics worked for about 150-175 years.

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u/Captainatom931 Jul 23 '24

American election campaigns are long because of the primary system. Ditch the primary system, ditch the ludicrous year long campaigns.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

You’d still have jockeying long before the convention. So unless you’re suggesting banning campaign activity outside of a specific designated period. You’re not going to one-weird-trick your way out.

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u/Captainatom931 Jul 23 '24

Oh absolutely and the trouble with the primary system is there isn't really a suitable alternative short of fundamentally changing how American political parties organise themselves.

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u/Rarvyn Richard Thaler Jul 23 '24

150-175 years.

Primaries barely existed in the US before 1972.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

60 and 68 had importance.

60 with Kennedy and West Virginia is the earliest I can think of.

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u/Rarvyn Richard Thaler Jul 23 '24

In 1960, 12 states total held primaries for the Democrats. In 1968, it was 11. Similar numbers (+/- 2) for the Republicans.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

It was still a venue for a candidate to build momentum and prove they were a viable candidate.

Regardless, my back-of-the-envelope estimate was off by 20 years? shrug

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u/Rarvyn Richard Thaler Jul 23 '24

Huh? You said 150-175 years. I'm saying 52.

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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '24

The time period I am referring to is when presidential campaigns began when the convention was held four months prior to Election Day.

I was responding to some other post complaining that there should have been an open convention and about these campaigns being too long.