Comments on: Politics is compromise

By: J. Lynne

J. Lynne — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:50:53 +0000

Who was it that said that any man that wants to be President should be immediately disqualified?

By: Pstonie

Pstonie — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:29:55 +0000

No, I get it. It’s an attempt to supply society with some moral spine, because some people really do need laws to tell them right from wrong.
And perhaps you’re right, but I still think majority rules is a fairly stupid way to determine a society’s leadership. All people are not created equal. Although I guess anything else is just too undemocratic.
A lot of these flaws in the system I think are inherent of its requirements. You don’t actually get to vote for new policy, for instance, just more politicians. People going for the popular vote are the last bastards who should be controlling anything.

By: thudfactor

thudfactor — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:28:17 +0000

The theory is that by electing someone to govern you, you are governing the governors. Hence “self-governing,” where “self” refers not necessarily to the individual but to the collected populace. It’s not a difficult concept to grasp.
Sarah’s point, and mine, is that if there was a little less cynicism and a little more actual effort put forth by the aforementioned collected populace in the self-governing, government would work better. Furthermore, Sarah is saying that this kind of cynicism — the one that suggests that there’s no point, or the effort is doomed to failure — is self-fulfilling; and convincing people that they can’t govern the governors is a tactic used by those who prefer an authoritarian state.

By: Pstonie

Pstonie — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:23:25 +0000

By definition, I think, electing someone else to govern you is at least admitting that you’re not capable of doing it yourself.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:23:41 +0000

Democratic processes, and in fact the Constitution as well, are set up to facilitate mutually agreeable compromises between diverse groups. A compromise is something distinct from a lowest common denominator, and the democratic ideal is not doomed to failure and mediocrity. It is, however, dependent upon the interest of people and the energetic participation of citizens in at least three ways: informing themselves, thinking through the issues, and voting.
There were three lies that helped put George W. Bush in the White House. One was put forward by Ralph Nader, and another was promoted by the Christian Right. Pstonie, using quoted text (quoted text is de facto authoritative)has made an able statement of the third lie.
These three lies have one basic idea, a sort of source lie, in common. The source lie is that human beings are too flat-out stupid and ignorant to understand the issues and participate in their own government. It assumes that we need a ruler, not a constitution. The ruler would be someone born better than the rest of us, brighter and closer to God. If we could get over this lie, which is old and powerful, perhaps we could cease to spawn derivative ideas that inhibit our ability to see or serve our own best interests as a society.

By: Pstonie

Pstonie — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:15:35 +0000

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By: thudfactor

thudfactor — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:51:17 +0000

Francesca, even with the challenges the President faces, this one has been an unmitigated disaster using just about any metric you choose to use. There are lots of reasons this guy got installed in office the first time, but chief among them was the Nader protest campaign, which pealed votes away from Gore and was based in large part on the lie that there was no difference between Gore and Bush.
Lots of people voted for Nader because they believed that; never mind that Nader, if elected, would not have been able to govern.

By: Francesca Preece

Francesca Preece — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 19:45:33 +0000

Gosh the president does have a tough time – how do you manage to handle the concerns and woes of such a multi-national/racial country?
I thought it was a difficult job enough as it is over in the UK with the squabbles between Scotland, Wales, England and N. Ireland!
While that may not change my apprehension of the incumbent, I will be sure to give some slack to the next to walk through the White house.
Fantastic work!