Sunday, April 30, 2006
More background
Here is some more previous postings while I think.
It's hard to make changes in an institution as thoroughly entrenched as party politics. The party system is both a strength and a weakness in a democracy. It provides a structure for like thinkers to gather and consolidate their ideas. There can be little power with out numbers. A party is like a tribe. People bonded by common concerns. Of course with a huge country with massive economic resources, things are going to get pretty complex. In a simplistic way we can look at our political system as two sub governments who are at war. So much power (money) is up for grabs in every election that the principal function of the party is to maintain and increase it's power. Think of it like territory. Ideas and adjendas as well as truth and reality come second to provining product. Product? Well gang that's us. The voters. We are the currency of politics. America is still a democracy and those who wish to be powerful must come to us for permission. We still have incredible power but we don't use it that well. Here is the sad fact. Issues are not that important. What matters most in elections is money. In nearly all elections the candidate with the best funding wins. And worse, negative campaigning is more effective than positive debate about issues and commitments. We got to face it. Our political system is broken, corrupted by it's nature, and we need to fix it. This will take a lot of work and a lot of change but there is one simple way we can start. And as I said before, no incumbents. We may lose a few good politicians but we will send a message that will not be misunderstood. We can tell washington that we are fed up with the misuse of our mandate, and we will use that mandate to demand change. I believe we should vote out all incumbents in the next election.
Adaven
It's hard to make changes in an institution as thoroughly entrenched as party politics. The party system is both a strength and a weakness in a democracy. It provides a structure for like thinkers to gather and consolidate their ideas. There can be little power with out numbers. A party is like a tribe. People bonded by common concerns. Of course with a huge country with massive economic resources, things are going to get pretty complex. In a simplistic way we can look at our political system as two sub governments who are at war. So much power (money) is up for grabs in every election that the principal function of the party is to maintain and increase it's power. Think of it like territory. Ideas and adjendas as well as truth and reality come second to provining product. Product? Well gang that's us. The voters. We are the currency of politics. America is still a democracy and those who wish to be powerful must come to us for permission. We still have incredible power but we don't use it that well. Here is the sad fact. Issues are not that important. What matters most in elections is money. In nearly all elections the candidate with the best funding wins. And worse, negative campaigning is more effective than positive debate about issues and commitments. We got to face it. Our political system is broken, corrupted by it's nature, and we need to fix it. This will take a lot of work and a lot of change but there is one simple way we can start. And as I said before, no incumbents. We may lose a few good politicians but we will send a message that will not be misunderstood. We can tell washington that we are fed up with the misuse of our mandate, and we will use that mandate to demand change. I believe we should vote out all incumbents in the next election.
Adaven
# posted by Adaven @ 9:33 PM 
