Monthly Archives: July 2018

Two-party systems

i just figured out why voting systems tend to devolve into two parties or blocks.  It’s because of simple majority wins: if a group has to have more than fifty percent of the vote to win, it has to be big enough to limit the other guys to less than fifty percent.  If all parties concerned think like that, they’re going to have to coalesce into one of at most two groups.

math.

NYTimes: George Soros Bet Big on Liberal Democracy. Now He Fears He Is Losing.

George Soros Bet Big on Liberal Democracy. Now He Fears He Is Losing. https://nyti.ms/2LpmDKL

I found the last paragraph really moving, where Mr Soros admits to being distressed at how many enemies he seems to have made, and how he wished he had more friends.

I, for one, think he’s a hero. I think Western governments let him down in the 90s, just when their support would have made the difference in Eastern Europe, and he ended up going it alone. I’d be honored to have him as a friend.