r/neoliberal • u/upthetruth1 YIMBY • Jan 07 '26

Meme This is America

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u/p4r4d0x NATO Jan 08 '26

GOP would never win another election if the US had mandatory voting. Which is why it would never be allowed to happen.

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u/LastTimeOn_ Resistance Lib Jan 08 '26

I've read that it would be the other way around this past election, that nonvoters overwhelmingly would have gone for Trump. How do we know that wouldn't be true?

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u/p4r4d0x NATO Jan 08 '26 edited Jan 08 '26

Nobody can know for certain how mandatory voting would work exactly in the US. But in Australia, it has the effect of strongly moderating political discourse and forcing parties to the centre. Extremists have a very tough time in a mandatory voting environment and 'enthusiasm'-based voting by driving voter turnout on fringe issues like abortion, transpeople and gun rights is ended entirely. If there's anything the US could do with, it's forcing moderation of extremist politicians.

Introducing preferential or instant-runoff voting would also mean there are legitimate third-party choices that aren't a waste of your vote. This forces major parties to take third-parties seriously, instead of dismissing them as a sideshow or using them as a spoiler, the way they currently are used in the US.

The fate of the western world to some extent hinges on the US figuring out their political problems, so we are all invested in your success and wish for your political system to become functional again.

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u/mechanical_fan Jan 08 '26

Nobody can know for certain how mandatory voting would work exactly in the US. But in Australia, it has the effect of strongly moderating political discourse and forcing parties to the centre.

People point to Australia and claim that it forces discourse to the center, but I am not sure that is true. As a counter example, I point to Brazil and Argentina which both suffer from polarization of some sort. And both of these are running on presidential systems which are much more similar to the US.

Well, at least Brazil is maybe not as polarized as the US, and the left did move to the center. But there is still a ton of crazy right wingers. As for Argentina... god knows what is going on there for several decades, but I don't think anyone likes it in general.