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Re:DeepSeek v4 by Cthulhu_ on Friday April 24, 2026 @04:03AM (#47887145)
It's probably a bit more nuanced than "half this, half that"; when you look at the facts, most voters aren't that extremist. A lot of votes vote one way or the other because they would simply never vote for the other.

This is why the swing voters / swing states are so important in the US, because only a few million are flexible enough to switch sides.

Of course the core issue is that there's a two party system; while I'm sure that in a healthy democracy the current republican and democrat parties would be the bigger ones, they wouldn't have a majority.

Re:DeepSeek v4 by drcongo on Friday April 24, 2026 @05:20AM (#47887708)
> A lot of votes vote one way or the other because they would simply never vote for the other.

This, for me, is the crux. Politics is treated like a team sport in the US, you pick your side and cheer them on no matter what. And team sports in America are even more bananas - you grow up supporting the Brooklyn Dodgers and a few years later they're 2.5k miles away with a new name. This seems a perfect example of what's happened / happening to the Republican Party - it's not the same party any more, but everyone who tied their entire personality to cheering for the red team is still cheering for it as it burns the country to the ground. I predict that inside ten years it will have also had the name change and probably be run out of Florida or somewhere.

Re:DeepSeek v4 by 0xDEAFBEAD on Friday April 24, 2026 @07:06AM (#47888522)
That's not exactly accurate as a diagnosis. Many former Bush/McCain/Romney staffers endorsed Kamala Harris:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kamala-harris-endorsement-bush-...

Trump caused a big political realignment actually.

Re:DeepSeek v4 by enaaem on Friday April 24, 2026 @05:55AM (#47887967)
I think it's more like a cult than a team sport. Sports fans figure out really fast if their manager is shit.
Re:DeepSeek v4 by HarHarVeryFunny on Friday April 24, 2026 @07:10AM (#47888566)
> This is why the swing voters / swing states are so important in the US, because only a few million are flexible enough to switch sides.

Of course if the USA was an actual democracy, electing it's president by popular vote, then this would not be an issue - every vote would count to tip the balance in favor of who the people wanted to elect, not just the votes of the 20% fortunate enough to live in a "swing" state.

Re:DeepSeek v4 by cma on Friday April 24, 2026 @07:48AM (#47888911)
Parliamentary systems with more coalition involved instead of two party first-past-the-post can foster extremes too, like we're seeing in Israel.