I read the books listed in the reverse of the order in which I listed
them. Perhaps because of that, I think the order of relevance is also
increasing.
In particular, the authors of IEWTIL (rhymes with "futile") explain why
they believe a third party would not improve the situation at all: If
anything, the opposite, in part because a third party would most likely
take votes from the Democrats.
The constitution was designed to prevent a majority from riding
roughshod over a significant minority. The Republicans have realized
that the rules enable them to stop (almost) all movement. The parties
are acting in Parliamentary fashion (voting in lockstep), when the
Constitution was designed without any consideration of that
possibility. Indeed, when the Constitution was formed, the idea of
political parties would have been appalling to the founding fathers (and
would perhaps have been considered unpatriotic). (After all, they had
shortly before united to fight a war to throw off the British yoke.)
For those interested in voting systems, towards the end of the book the
authors suggest alternate voting regimes. There are several interesting
suggestions for improving the present situation.
For myself, I am coming to believe the only hope is for the Democrats to
retake control of both houses and the presidency, so as to enable them
to push through voting reform. Although, in fairness, it is not clear
that they would do that it they did gain control. But I do not see any
other way to implement change to the current situation.
Joe
On 10/4/12 4:39 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
Joe -
All very interesting, but I would suggest reading the books I
recommended a few posts back to understand the issues and some of the
(possibly feasible) solutions.
I appreciated your suggestions during a previous thread on Politics:
/
Democracy Lost, by Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law professor - the
corrupting influence of money on Washington //
//
//The Price of Inequality, by Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in
Economics - the increasing inequality in the US and its impact, as
well as various responses to conservative economic orthodoxies //
//
//It's Even Worse Than It Looks, by Thomas E. Mann (Brookings
Institution) and Norman J. Ornstein (American Enterprise
Institute) - why congress is almost completely ineffectual and
what might be done about it. /
I am, in fact familiar with some of these writers works and ideas and
generally agree with them and think their ideas are important.
I'm focusing on raising awareness for the need to break the bipartisan
stranglehold on elections (and public debate) right now simply because
the opportunity is here right now... our nose is being rubbed in how
lame the process and structure of Presidential Campaigns, Debates,
Elections have become.
Lessig addresses this more than the other two I think.
I definitely don't think that it is nearly enough to introduce a third
(or several more) parties. But it might be necessary?
- Steve
On 10/4/12 2:19 PM, Steve Smith wrote:
Doug -
I'm voting for Gary as my mechanism for voting against Romney, and
lackluster Obama.
I don't know how accurate/useful/neutral this particular map is:
http://freedomslighthouse.net/2012-presidential-election-electoral-vote-map/
But it suggests to me that many who are voting for Obama to vote
*against* Romney/'Pubs/etc. can afford to risk "wasting" their vote
by voting *for* any third party. And alternatively, those who
might actually *want* Romney might accept that he's not happening
this time around and vote *for* the choice of a third party. My
personal preference *is* Gary Johnson despite my general mistrust of
self-declared Liberatarians. I think he could do a better job
handling the *important* issues for *both* parties than the
candidates fielded.
I'm very conflicted about Obama's performance... I understand the
general malaise represented by your desription as "lackluster"...
but I'm also willing to see him in for 4 more years. It looks
pretty likely he will get that chance.
Meanwhile I want to vote *for* third party representation and
alternatives to Red/Blue. This looks like the chance.
For those who are interested, BTW, https://voterview.state.nm.us/
will let you look up your registration status. It seems a little
too easy to look up (name, birthdate?) but I guess this *is* public
information?!
The psuedo-debates on Democracy Now with the Green and the Justice
party gave me hope... neither of the candidates came off as
whackadoodles... which I'm not sure I can say for Romney (though the
constrained/scripted debate format helps hide that side of him).
- Steve
--Doug
On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 1:40 PM, Steve Smith <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I've been out of the mix for a while, so I missed this:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JohnsonL
So Gary is not laying down, just being (mostly) ignored. He's
made the ballot in all 50 states apparently...
I'm hoping that in every non-battleground state, folks will not
be afraid to vote for their third-party candidate of choice.
Even Mickey Mouse, Alfred E. Neumann or your favorite pet.
In battleground states, it is a harder question... the
arguments against "splitting the vote" are real, which demands
a change in the election laws to break the bipartisan deadlock.
As many of you may know, I'm a big proponent of breaking the
polarization of our two-party system. Here is Democracy
Now's attempt to subvert the lock-out created by the two major
parties and maintained by myriad interests:
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/4/expanding_the_debate_exclusive_third_party
How many of us even knew there WAS a Green and a Justice Party
candidate? I assume some have not even heard of Libertarian
candidate Gary Johnson... if he wasn't an NM homeboy, *I*
might not have known about him.
Here is a short piece on the "conspiracy" behind this lockout...
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/3/ahead_of_first_obama_romney_debate
I tend to trust DN's accuracy in reporting, despite their
clear bias. The facts laid out here are pretty damning.
I'm personally sorry that Gary Johnson wasn't available for
this, I would like to believe it is truly logistics, not lack
of interest on his part for not being there for this.
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Doug Roberts
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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--
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913.
============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
--
"Sunlight is the best disinfectant."
-- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1913.
============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
