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Politics : Is Secession Doable? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SilentZ who wrote (26)	11/4/2004 3:31:40 AM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1968

This has happened before and to the other side. It can be moved, there's always a soft center portion that simply votes stupidly from time to time. The extreme radicals will always be here but they aren't necessary to WIN. People are malleable. That's why propaganda on a consistent basis is critical. If Kerry, for example, had had his own Rove and had actually listened to him he'd be President today. Ditto for the redistricting in Texas that got Dems kicked out. Ditto for the elections elsewhere. God and religion and family values and morality and decency aren't the property of the right-wing immoral evil satanists. They've taken it over to use for their own evil purposes. This is the problem with the moderates and the progressives: they don't FIGHT TO WIN. Shrum is now 0-8 and pushed the Kerry campaign into the 'high road' BS. It cost. Kerry should have won and could have won if he had come out swinging EARLY. IT'S POLITICS. The trick is to win first and govern the way you wish to AFTER YOU WIN. You can't govern if you can't win. I think people are mostly ill-informed, busy and emotional. I believe they are malleable. That's why we spend so much money on advertising. If it didn't work as propaganda we wouldn't do it.

To: SilentZ who wrote (26)	11/4/2004 3:33:10 AM
From: jimcav	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1968

"Sunstein argues that a basic principle of constitutionalism is that political institutions, including the constitution itself, must be designed so as to encourage citizens to engage in the hard work of democratic politics, where this means competing in the public forum on grounds of principle, with a minimum of strategic bargaining. Following Albert O. Hirschman, (Hirschman, 1970) he then contends that if the constitution acknowledges a right to secede then discontent minorities will be tempted to shirk the hard work of principled, democratic politics either by actually seceding when the majoritarian decisions go against their preferences or by using the threat of secession as a strategic bargaining tool as a de facto veto over majority rule. In either case, democracy will be undermined." plato.stanford.edu