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The Left-Right Trap
Which side are you on? Does it matter?
Voting in modern democracies is a trap plain and simple. It’s a one-dimensional like where you’re forced to decide if you’re on the left or the right. And if you’re standing in the middle, you’re a swing voter.
The whole idea of a two-party system is awful. It’s like if the NBA only had two teams, one for the east and one for the west. You’d be either cheering for one or the other, and there would be only one match to decide the champions…for the next 4 years. That would be probably a gambler’s dream scenario, but for sports fans it’s pretty drab. So why do we put up with this when deciding who will rule your country?
In a time when most democracies use a first-past-the-post system, it always boils down to a choice between two parties. Even when it’s not a two-party system, the way the voting works essentially forces it into that position. In Canada, for example, we have two major parties, the Liberals and Conservatives, a third contender, the NDP, and a symbolic party, the Greens. Both the Liberals and the NDP are considered part of the left, with the NDP further left. In a hypothetical vote, if 50% are left-leaning, and 50% are right-leaning, then the Conservatives will get half the votes. As for the Liberals and NDP, they have to be careful not to split the vote, else they each get 25% or…
