• Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    It’s mathematically Impossible to have a 3rd party in the US, when are you people with other systems going to understand that?

      • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Then why do they never win any votes in the electoral college? When is the last time a third party ever succeeded nationally in the US when it didn’t involve the dissolution of some other party that preceded it?

          • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Then I guess I’d like someone to explain the mathematical probability, because from an empirical standpoint I haven’t seen anything to disprove the claim being made above.

            • PeggyLouBaldwin@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              you can’t prove a negative, but a positive claim has been offered here. so the person putting forward the claim must support it, as a claim made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

              • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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                1 month ago

                You absolutely can prove a negative, actually.

                The very assertion that a negative claim can’t be proven is itself a negative claim, to frame it another way. Though that claim is unproven as it would be a paradox to be otherwise.

      • Chapelgentry@lemmynsfw.com
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        1 month ago

        You need 270 Electoral College votes to prevent the vote going to the states for the Presidency. There are 538 votes available. The only way to have more than two parties compete and have the election not go to the House is if one party is unified and has large public support against the other parties that do not. This essentially creates a single-party state.

        Ergo, our system is designed to have two parties, each with roughly half the population behind them. Anything more mathematically ends in a single party state.