> Political distrust only goes so far, because winning elections tends to give you more control over the government, which in turn allows you to manipulate elections
In banana republics, sure, in civilized countries, not so much.
> On the local level, the opposition party
Again, I'm sorry the US has the incredibly shitty first-past-the-post election shit, because that is the cause of the inevitable two-party system shit.
If the US had a better representative democracy, this wouldn't be a problem.
However, even with the situation you describe, it should be possible to guess which districts will be the closest in margin, and make sure you put more eyes on those districts, in favor of districts that are sure to go either way. That's good enough to secure the election result.
> Again, I'm sorry the US has the incredibly shitty first-past-the-post election shit, because that is the cause of the inevitable two-party system shit.
It's not just the US; it's every English-speaking country except New Zealand. Proportional representation doesn't really stop governments from manipulating their elections either--for example, the Russian Duma has proportional representation.
In banana republics, sure, in civilized countries, not so much.
> On the local level, the opposition party
Again, I'm sorry the US has the incredibly shitty first-past-the-post election shit, because that is the cause of the inevitable two-party system shit.
If the US had a better representative democracy, this wouldn't be a problem.
However, even with the situation you describe, it should be possible to guess which districts will be the closest in margin, and make sure you put more eyes on those districts, in favor of districts that are sure to go either way. That's good enough to secure the election result.