Are you a member of a political party?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@preinheimer I think the big advantage of membership is having a voice in policy and leadership decisions. I'm a member of two parties (federal and provincial) and we have meetings and votes all the time. It's a big contrast for me compared to the US, where there's not really a party membership structure for most parties, although you can usually declare affiliation with electoral systems to participate in primaries.

[johnefrancis@cosocial.ca]

@evan usually >1. There's federal and provincial. And sometimes its good to join a few at each level and try to advance my values in all of them.

[nick@sloan.host]

@evan @preinheimer The US Democratic Party has organizations that you can participate in at the state, county and local levels. You can run to be an official party representative for your community during the primaries. Official committee members vote to endorse candidates in primary and general elections, and even to select candidates for special elections (for which there is no primary). They also help campaign for candidates that they have endorsed, and recruit candidates for open positions.

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan I honestly think it is a good thing that the vast majority of Canadians are not party members.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@nick @preinheimer These are all good points! Thanks for noting them.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@virtuous_sloth elaborate!

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan My impression is that the US used to operate much like Canada where party membership was purely a private affair and parties themselves were purely private organizations. I think I heard that, to combat back-room power dealing within parties, some of those private functions were made public (e.g. the state running primaries).

It seems like this encouraged party membership and/or identification to the what, 20-30% level compared with Canada's 1-2% levels.

This encourages polarization.

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan I get why party politics can be helpful in legislatures to produce legislation (less negotiation and more production) but when the identification spreads to the general population, I worry it divides.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

Hey, all. I'm a member of federal and provincial political parties in Canada and Quebec respectively. I pointed out in the replies that this is somewhat different from membership or party affiliation in the US, although others noted that some form of membership at state and local levels is possible with US parties too. Regardless, I'm a Yes. Thanks to everyone who replied or responded.

[zebking@mastodon.online]

@virtuous_sloth @evan

Interesting thoughts.

I offer that most municipalities have no 'parties,' but division exists as much if not more at the municipal level where each elected member acts as if they were their own political party.

Thus, I suggest division is not a result of groups or political parties; it's a consequence of the relationship between those with interests/needs/wants and those with resources. This is the relational nature of #power. As old as the hills. #cdnpoli

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@ZebKing @virtuous_sloth Montreal has municipal political parties. They're pretty ephemeral and often cluster around a key (usually mayoral) candidate, but some like Projet Montreal have survived a few generations of charismatic leaders to become something else.