Playgirl Gets Politically Correct
on 03/22/2005 at 06:25 AM
Another victim of those who would staff our Ministry of Love, if they could....
It must be nice to be self-serving without being a hypocrite....
(yawn)
Another middle of the road lady!
I can see your frustration, OCM, and I have a confession to make:
I used to be a liberal.
After my fine college education, I was in a deconstructionist, delusional haze. Then I joined the Marine Corps. Putting one’s ass on the line and seeing some of the rest of the world puts everything in a whole new perspective.
Although I am an “Independent” I find myself going with the Reps much more often than with the Dems, especially since 1992, not because I strongly agree with the entire Rep platform, but because I so strongly disagree with almost everything in the Dem-agenda and their tactics which are for the most part, right out of the Trotsky playbook. I know the Left because I was once among them.
Here in New Zealand they have a parlaimentary system with something like 6 parties represented. The 2 major ones are National (conservative) and Labour (liberal). For the ones who are more liberal and moonbatty, there is the Green Party; the ones who are more conservative than the National platform have the ACT Party. The Maoris have the Maori party, and there’s one or 2 others I can’t think of off-hand.
I haven’t been here long enough to see the pros and cons of such a system, but at first glance it seems to be a good thing, if for no other reason than the more extreme or radical factions of a given party can’t “hide” their agenda as easily when they have their own party. That, in turn, allows voters more options than merely voting on a “lesser of 2 evils.”
Unfortunately, the Dem party in the US has not separated itself from its most radical wing. This is clearly demonstrated in their choice to appoint Howard Dean to head the DNC. It is sad that the Deaniac crowd has now become the mainstream of the modern Dem party. The Deaniacs/Move-On/Michael Moore crew should have their own party so we and they could see just how marginal they are on election day, but now they have been validated with control of one of the 2 principle parties. I suppose that is good news in a way for the true believers in the Rep party because the Dems have chosen not to hide who and what they are all about anymore. The only other kid on the block now has a big target on his back and the level of bulverization will increase on both sides. This is good news if the next step is to “get it on,” but does nothing to advance any legitimate discourse and dialogue.
I forgot the other middle of the road lady: 
The late German Chancellors Bruening, Papen and Schleicher could, perhaps, tell us whether multi-party governments are hard to run.
In such systems, the vote is typically for the party, rather than for any individual, and the parties are apportioned seats in the legislature in proportion to the percentages of the vote they obtained. In most cases, the majority party selects such officials as prime ministers, chancellors etc. Very few races are, typically, individually decided by the popular vote.
“Third parties” in this country have always suffered from appropriation of their worthwhile ideas (if any) by the two so-called “big parties.” Thus they are typically nipped in the bud.
It is unfortunate that at both parties, at times, appropriate ideas that are not so worthwhile. The one most prone to this, however, invariably takes a beating.
Hope this helps.
Tannenberg, no need to go back to some sour Krauts
. Just look at Aussie, NZ, Israel, Britain and many other parlaimentary systems in place today.
You’re pretty much right except the part about voting for the party instead of a person. The “people” vote for Parlaimentary Ministers who, like Congressmen, represent different areas. Then, yes, whatever party comes out with the most seats in parlaiment gets to appoint their top guy or gal to Prime Minister.
Different countries have different requirements for minimum percentages needed to claim victory, so alliances are made between parties on election night as the votes are counted. Here, the Greens get about 2-3% of the popular vote. In the elections, they usually form an alliance with Labour and throw their percentage to Labour in order to defeat National. It’s sort of getting to the same thing in a little more roundabout fashion. Then the Prime Minister’s party must retain their popularity each election in order to stay in power, and he or she must retain their popularity within their party because there is no guarantee that he or she will be nominated PM at the next election.
Mmm. Apparently things have changed a bit since I stopped being a sour Kraut and became a very sweet and lovable one.
03/22/2005 at 07:34 PM
Next entry: Did Jesse Jackson Convert To Islam?
Previous entry: French In The News