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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17086)	5/17/2005 11:24:53 PM
From: tsigprofit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

Interesting post Ray, and I will bookmark your thread. This could be a positive for the US. I like the idea of more diversity in Congress, such as Greens, Libertarians, Progressives. It would certainly make the Congress much more diverse, and encourage minority political voters to register and vote. I'm thinking it would also likely produce some purely evangelical candidates here in the US, and maybe a few members like David Duke. This would be interesting - to see Greens, Libertarians, Fundamentalists, and Racist candidates all trying to craft legislation together. ... t >> So, in the UK you have the anomalous and anti-democratic situation where the Labour Party recieved 36% of the votes in the last election, yet got about 55% of the seats in Parliament. The Liberal Dems, on the other hand garnered 22% of the vote, but were able to only secure about 10% of the seats in Parliament. Such a system is clearly not representative of the will of the people. In Germany, in contrast, the Green Party has made astounding gains in progressive and intelligent legislation while still only representing about 10 to 15% of the vote. In Germany, seats in the Bundesrat are assigned on the basis of the proportion of the vote that each party gets nationwide. Such a system would radically alter the landscape in America. Clearly the Republicans would be the big losers, as they should be since they represent such a small slice of the American public, much of which is deliberately alienated from the political process by the special interests represtented by the Republican Party.

To: Raymond Duray who wrote (17086)	5/23/2005 5:25:56 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 20773

I'm disappointed at how timid you are about real voting reform. First time, I've been called "timid". It's not timidity, it's dispassionate assessment. Another way of saying this is "winner takes all". This is the common system in America and the UK. In systems with proportional representation, such as in Germany, the voter votes for the party which represents their views and the parliament is created based upon the proportion of votes each party recieves. Thanks for the explanation. There's always two sides to the coin. Proportional representation has some appeal, but I haven't cared for the notion of voting a party vs. a person. But once I get passed that hurdle, it's not obvious that a German-like system easily transfers to the US. We operate under the notion that our elected officials represent the constituents of the State where they are elected. [Ignore the background laughing.] When you drive down to a State like ... North Dakota ... they get two Senators and 1 member for the House. Start portioning that out by percentages and the implementation of proportional representation become problematic. As to MONEY in politics, I think you have a very rigid view of the realm of the possible. For example, Arizona and Maine are two states that have gone to a 100% public financed system. Arizona is voluntary. Maine I don't know, but I'd guess that the nature of the system would require it be voluntary as well. We need drastic reform if we are to save the American Republic and prevent the inexorable slide into a criminal imperial police state. George Bush has done more in the last 5 years to ruin America than any other phenomenon in the history of this nation. He has been involved in synthetic terror, ruthless deceit, moral depravity and blatant cronyism. As purely a speculative guess: What % of the public do you think is informed and actually cares? jttmab