(11-12-2018, 04:38 PM)Kane Wrote:

(11-09-2018, 09:53 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote: I actually agree with this statement. The Democratic party screwed themselves by forcing Hillary down everyone's throats. When I looked at the last presidential ballot I saw two people (Trump and Hillary), that I did not like and did not respect. That is why I voted 3rd party. I may not like many politicians at all, but they at least have to earn my respect, for me to vote for them. Both parties failed miserably at putting respectable candidates on the ballot. As far as Bernie goes, I still believe he could beat Trump, but the Democratic party will never allow him to get that chance with their current leadership, because he is too radical for them. They want to keep the same old ideas and people are rebelling against them. That party needs new leadership or they will fail again.

The Republican party actually did something very similar to Ron Paul.
There were primaries that were rigged to lower his numbers, especially in Iowa.

During that election season the polls had Ron Paul as the ONLY ® candidate that was even close to beating Obama. Instead we got Mitt Romney a very unlikable candidate that was disconnected with half of the country (sounds familiar lol)

I was no Bernie fan but he was screwed

Lol.  Paul had like 10x less support than Bernie.
I believe you when you say that if Paul was the Republican party candidate, he could have beaten Obama, but he was the first choice of basically no one. 

I agree that we should go to a non-partisan, ranked choice way to select our leaders, and that Paul and Bernie are sort of examples of why, but the truth is that all candidates would change their tactics if we changed the voting system.  Ranked choice voting in practice doesn't produce winners who have internally consistent and uncompromising beliefs.  It produces winners who scrupulously avoid saying negative things about other candidates.  You wouldn't end up with a Bernie or a Ron Paul, you'd end up with a Jon Edwards or a John Kasich.  You may think that such people are not as smart as the average politician or more dishonest than average, but at least you'll be less provoked to argue with your neighbors about them.

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