“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin appeared clueless about basic American civics as she discussed the U.S. party system during the show’s Monday panel.
The panel discussed a debate floating around about the No Labels Party, a politically centrist national movement that is vowing to run its own presidential ticket if Republicans and Democrats fail to become more moderate. Hostin lamented how the two-party system in the U.S. is “so extreme on both sides” and attempted to compare the U.S. to foreign countries with multiparty systems.
“We’re a young country when you look around the world,” Hostin began. “And it’s not like every other country in the world that has a democracy, only has two parties. You look at Canada, that has multi-parties, you look at let’s say, Italy—multi-parties and has tended to work over time. It’s something that is unique to the American experiment that we are so extreme on both sides, and that’s why it can’t work, and that disappoints me. I would like more options.”
“I’ve said this before, Pew Research has said really, there are really only 7-10% of the population that are true independents, that can go either way. 94% go Democratic, 95% go Republican and so in this country, this kind of system can’t work, but it should be able to work,” she continued. “I think it says more about who we are as a country and the issues that we have failed to resolve in our country than it says more about our system.”
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Hostin does not appear to understand how the U.S. has direct representation while European countries have proportional representation, impacting the number of political parties in the countries and how the elections operate.
Thirty-one countries use Party List proportional representation to elect a member of the European Parliament, meaning the voters generally vote for the party first rather than a candidate, according to the Electoral Reform Society. The party then chooses which leaders will represent the party later. (RELATED: Sunny Hostin Claims Republicans Only Win By ‘Stealing The Election’ Or Attacking Minorities)
As Hostin apparently wants, a third party is an option in U.S. elections. However, third-party candidates only get a percentage of the vote that is disproportionately smaller than votes for the two major parties, making it more likely for voters to choose either a Democrat or Republican candidate. This makes it difficult for the third party to gain supporters or win enough votes to elect a candidate.