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Does anyone think they’d be able to explain US elections. I admit to being confused. Perhaps I should just read Wikipedia.
I have never heard of the Calignee Panther. We do have some rather poisonous snakes and spiders, but people don’t die of them anymore.
@bluejay I know drop bears aren’t real…apparently, according to another Aussie friend of mine, it’s something some Aussies try to trick newbies with. Though it’s a quite frightful animal (if it were real) that I’m going to put in a book someday…a writer’s revenge for the single day I actually did believe her. 😉 It’s somewhat similar to what Americans used to do (and maybe some still do) with snipe hunting. 😉
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
@anna-brie Ah, American elections. Let’s see. 🙂
First off, the government is broken down into two main groups, the nation, and the state. On the national level, we elect a president, a house of representatives (the amount of representatives being proportionate to the population of the state) and a Senate, which has two senators for each sate. At the state level, we elect a governor, a house of representatives and (it think) some sort of senate too. I’m not as familiar with the state organization. And then, inside states there are counties, cities, etc. but enough on that.
Each state votes for their representatives every two years. Senators serve six years, with a third of them being up for election every two years. The President serves for four years and can only be elected for two terms. And the Presidential elections are the most confusing to understand.
First, starting about a year before the general elections, the two main political parties gear up for primaries. (the two parties being the Democrats, who war bad, and the Republicans, who used to be good though many are now getting as liberal as the Democrats. There are other parties, but they aren’t big enough to normally effect the elections much). There are normally several people in each party who want to run for president, so they start campaigning against each other. Starting January of the election year, people, state by state, start voting for the candidate in each party of their choice. This is called the primaries. Each state has so many electoral votes depending on their population. In some states, the winner of that state gets all the electoral votes. In other states, the candidates get whatever percentage of the votes they won. Anyhow, the primaries go on until mid to late spring when everyone has voted and now there is a winner in each party (if there is no clear winner in a party, it goes to a convention where there is deals made and things like that until one person gets 51% of the electoral vote). Primaries, by the way, are what we’re in the middle of now and we all want Ted Cruz to win the Republican primary. He’s actually not doing too bad right now, though he’s still second.
After both candidates have been selected, they have all summer and fall to campaign against each other and then, in November, the people vote between the candidates. It isn’t by popular vote thought; each state has a number of electoral votes and that is what’s counted for the winner. So it has happened (though rarely) that a president will win enough electoral votes, but won’t get a popular majority.
And…I think that’s the main points. Anyone else feel free to add on or correct me if I messed something up.
INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.
Hope covered a lot of it. One thing about the states is that they all have their own constitutions so their state governments do vary.
As far is the presidential election, each party decides how their primaries are run. I don’t know very much about how the democratic primaries work (and I don’t even have the republican primary system 100% worked out yet), but here’s a rundown of the republican system.
Republican primaries are not decided by popular vote but by a delegate system. Each state votes independently and based on the popular votes in that state, the number of delegates a candidate wins is decided. Sometimes a candidate needs a certain percentage of the votes to even get any delegates. Most states give delegates proportionally to the candidates based on their popular votes in that stare. Some give most of the delegates to the most popular candidate in the state (even if he one by only a small margin) though they give a few to the others. Last of all, in some states, the candidate who wins most of the popular votes for that state will win all of the delegates. After all the states are done with their voting, the delegates meet at a convention type thing and they all cast their votes. Most of them have to vote for the person who “won them”, but (as I understand it) a small minority can decide however they want. If, however, the winner isn’t clear in this first vote (I’m not entirely sure what makes them a clear winner actually. Might be 51% vote. Might be something else.) then the delegates can vote for someone else.
Once the primaries are finished, the final race begins. This contest is usually decided by an electoral vote (special voters chosen to represent each state), but (unless I am mistaken) it can be won by a popular vote. It’s just that to win by popular vote you need to have a large majority, not just the majority, so that rarely happens.
Actually, I would say Ted Cruz is doing pretty amazing right now even if he is just a little behind Trump. Even if he loses, what he’s already done is practically a miracle. Never has such a pure conservative done so well – almost ever.
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I was telling Dad about it and he said that’s why it’s good we have a Queen. We don’t have to go through the rigmarole of voting for her.
Now since you’ve so kindly explained that I’ll do it for Australia. We also have a senate and a house of representatives. 6 senators per state and two per territory. Representatives depend on population, each sate is split up into electorates. Reps are in for no more than 3 years. Senators for 6 years half being elected every 3 years.
On one day we have our election for both. (usually at least) The Party that gets the most seats in the House of Representatives forms the government and the Party leader becomes the Prime Minister. Unfortunately that means if they decide to change who the leader of the party is we get a new Prime Minister and all we can do is complain, or pray. It didn’t happen much in the past, but it’s happened 3 times in the last 5 years.
Our two major parties are Labor (we usually spell that with a ‘u’ but an American came in changed it) and the Coaltion, which is the Liberal party along with the nationals. Liberal is/was the conservative party. There’s also the Greens who used to be communist and the Party my family votes for; the Christian Democratic Party. Our goal is mostly to get someone into the senate.
The states all work basically the same but on a smaller scale. The system is an unique mixture of the Westminster and American systems.
@writefury – YOU HAVE? It is one of my life dreams to go to Israel. Hopefully I’ll go as a reporter and cover current events; that would be so cool. (Although I’m learning that being a reporter can be very frustrating.) I’m so tired of the anti-Israel media, aren’t you? What did you do in Israel?
@bluejay – I’ve never heard of any Australian authors. Can you recommend some?@anna-brie You have a queen? Is she more of a national figure or does she actually have a position in government? Who is she?
Does sound kinda like a Brittish-American mesh. Do prime ministers have term limits?
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@Anna-Brie Liberal is your Conservative party? In America, the liberals are the opposite of the conservatives, and the Democrats have decidedly unChristian values. I had no idea that the same word could be used so differently in different countries. 🙂
Actually, I would say Ted Cruz is doing pretty amazing right now even if he is just a little behind Trump. Even if he loses, what he’s already done is practically a miracle. Never has such a pure conservative done so well – almost ever.
This. So much this. It makes me so happy, actually, @Daeus.
And here’s a piece of positive news— my dad is absolutely nuts about analyzing political data, so naturally all of us kids are too, and Ted Cruz’s ground game of volunteers and such is exceptionally impressive— the last candidate to have a ground game remotely close to Cruz’s was… Obama. And look where that landed him.
(Obama is our current president, @bluejay).
@sarah-h What?!? Anna Brie and I aren’t Australian enough writers for you?
Anyway for proper authors – Try Mary Grant Bruce; Frank Dalby Davison; Eleanor Spence; Mavis Thorpe Clark; Ruth Park; Elyne Mitchell; Nance Donkin.
I’m sorry I can’t list any more. Most of the books in our libray are by American authors. 😀
But Mary and Mavis write very good Australian books. You should check them out.
@anna-brie Thanks for the info on Aussie politics. I’m really sad, cause I have to vote this year. *Oh bother!* 🙁@sarah-h Yes it’s weird. Wikipedia explains it well.
The party’s centre-right ideology has been referred to as conservative, liberal-conservative, and conservative-liberal. The Liberal Party promotes economic liberalism.
So that’s where the name comes from.
@daeus Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia. We are part of the British commonwealth as are Canada and New Zealand. She’s also the queen of quite a lot of other places. Her role is mostly ceremonial, but she does have to approve the governor-general who is her representative. She has opened Parliament on a few occasions I believe and visits occasionally.
There are people who want to turn Australia into a Republic, but we pray that they won’t ever succeed. It’s a protection against certain things. God Save the Queen was our official national anthem until 1984.
There is no limit on the time a Prime Minister can serve. Sir Robert Menzies served for 16 years and had served for 2 years earlier on. These days they’re getting chucked out before they serve a full term.ETA: Menzies retired at the end.
I’m really sad, cause I have to vote this year. *Oh bother!*
@bluejay what!? You lucky thing! I would give just about anything to be old enough to vote this election cycle. It’s a privilege, my dear girl! A PRIVILEGE! 😀Yeah, he has the best run campaign of any candidate period.
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@kate-flournoy I have a “baby mind” when it comes to things like voting. I don’t know who the good party is and I don’t want to make the wrong choice and so forth. So yes, it kind of is a privilege, but really I’m quite happy not to do it. But I will have to, so I’ll try to do it with a smile on my face. 😉
@anna-brie My sister wants to know, have you read books by Eleanor Spence and if so did you enjoy them?
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