Lyndon Hood: I mean the thing about giving people options they actually like probably also applies

So voting is better than *not* voting when it comes to getting what you want? Huh.

BREAKING NEWS: Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which instead came in third in initial results as polling stations closed.

Projections in France's election show voters rejecting the far rightwww.npr.org Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which ...

I mean the thing about giving people options they actually like probably also applies

Like everyone replying here is extremely correct about what happened, it's just that also if there was no left bloc to start with fewer votes might have been on the table (But then again, increased turnout)

Which is I guess actually saying there are problems comparing the systems

Buddy they're not even that different effectively. Leftists could sit out the two candidate runoff bc their guy didn't make it but they didn't.

The problem with the US system (and it's definitely a problem) is that you have to pick your coalition up front. You can organize and vote for your person in whichever primary but then in the general there are only two viable choices. The general is equivalent to France's runoff.

I think the option that is being "liked" here is "not living under a far-right authoritarian government."

When your choices are "guy who said out loud and on purpose that he plans to be a dictator on day one" and "guy nobody's excited about but ISN'T going to do that," any waffling between the two is an admission you don't actually see fascists at the helm as a bad thing.

Yeah, I don't feel confused about what's at stake in the U.S. elections. Maybe because I've lived through Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, Trump . . .

Out of all of those, I suppose Bush 1 was the least objectionable, but still.

Nope. France beat the fascists by having people across the country strategically vote for whoever could beat the fascists. Hell, the left coalition will probably shatter soon. Many of them hate each other. They just didn't want the fascists to win.

You literally had moderates voting for far-left candidates they despise and lefties voting for moderated they loathed, all to keep the fascists out. It's exactly the opposite of what you're claiming.

Sure, except that in the US the onus is only ever put on the left to settle for centrists instead of the other way around

Nonsense. Candidates win primaries by running to the left of more centrist candidates all the time. Then the party comes together and votes for that candidate.

This literally happened by people voting strategically for parties that weren't their first choice so they could keep the fascists at bay!

The french left will be going bare knuckles by next week with each other but they all accept that you don’t ever give the facists an inch.

You vote for a party platform, not the leader of said party. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Wow. Really? The whole fucking point of what happened in France is that people voted for the option that, in the first round, was NOT the option they liked. But they put that fact aside to defeat the fascists. And honestly if you don't understand that you need to read a book or ten.

Are you having difficulty deciding which option you like more?

The US system has parties negotiate internally before the election, others have parties negotiate after the election. The US system passes the compromise to the voter, but neither case really gives you control of that process.

That said, psychologically people have gotten themselves into a weird place in US politics where voters participate in that internal negotiation then somehow decide they can just ignore the result of it, which is pretty odd.

But that only works well when the electoral system is not straight FPTP. Remember in 2002 when the runoff was Chirac vs Le Pen? Imagine if the choice this year was Romney vs Trump.

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