zlacker

>>obilgi+(OP)
The first (of several) demands reads:

> The Seattle Police Department and attached court system are beyond reform. We do not request reform, we demand abolition. We demand that the Seattle Council and the Mayor defund and abolish the Seattle Police Department and the attached Criminal Justice Apparatus. This means 100% of funding, including existing pensions for Seattle Police. At an equal level of priority we also demand that the city disallow the operations of ICE in the city of Seattle.

https://capitolhillautonomous.zone/demands.html

This is a fascinating experiment that seems to channel a number of forces bubbling just below the surface for decades. The futile, never-ending war on drugs. Police violence. Lack of police accountability. Institutional racism.

What will be more fascinating is what new political parties develop. These demands are well outside the mainstream, but given recent events, not impossible to see being implemented to one degree or another.

But neither party has the alignment of interests for this kind of reform.

Without a political party, it's hard to imagine how anything changes after the banners and barricades come down.

>>aazaa+O02
As someone with close ties to an existing third party, they shouldn't put much hope on forming one and seeing it succeed. The American electoral system makes it nearly impossible for third parties to gain traction. And that's before you take into account that the people most likely to join third parties are also the most likely to be fringe personalities with little mainstream appeal and a penchant for causing internal strife.

>>tvanan+tO2
> The American electoral system makes it nearly impossible for third parties to gain traction.

That's true, under the existing system. And that makes it attractive to reform the system, to make it easier for third parties to grow.

For example, approval voting was passed in Fargo recently: https://www.electionscience.org/commentary-analysis/approval...

tl;dr -- third parties can't grow as long as "splitting the vote" is a thing. But some voting systems have that and others don't.

>>Taikon+kS2
I love approval voting. It's so simple, but for some reason ranked choice always seems to be pushed harder when talking about alternative voting systems.