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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (10392)	1/30/2006 5:38:13 PM
From: Fred Gohlke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541624

It seems to me most of the unhappiness with our government stems from looking in the wrong direction. Democracy means government by the people. In America, government is not by the people, it is by the men and women who control the political parties. These individuals are not elected to their positions of power ... most Americans don't even know who they are ... but they rule our nation. They rule by requiring that their candidates for public office demonstrate "party loyalty". The candidates are "loyal" because the party controls the resources necessary for their election. The result is a tight, incestuous circle. The parties raise money by selling the votes of "loyal" politicians to vested interests, and the politicians stay "loyal" because the parties have the money to get them elected. Candidates chosen in this way are the least honorable of our citizens ... but they are the only choices available in our so-called "free" elections. We need to come to grips with this problem. Political parties serve as conduits for corruption. Until we learn that the party system, which systematically excludes principled people from public office, is fundamentally flawed, we should not be surprised at the scandals that taint our government. To achieve a democratic, principled government, we must not tolerate the corruption of party politics. We do not need partisanship, which thrives on mindless bombast, we need to thoughtfully choose principled leaders who can be trusted. We have the ability to devise a more democratic method of selecting our representatives. Shouldn't we be working on that? Fred

To: Dale Baker who wrote (10392)	1/30/2006 10:00:41 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 541624

The difference between Reagan/O'Neill and the present is about 25 years. There is a different mindset, and most of that mindset is coming from the "children" who were raising he** in the 1960's by rioting, pot, Woodstock, free love, and the vocabulary running in the sewer. Not everyone, of course. But enough that we certainly are seeing them not only in public political life, but in the movies, in the House and Senate, and all the etcs. It isn't that Reagan/O'Neill and etc didn't know the words...I can well imagine they did. But, they didn't choose to use trash words as everyday language. Therefore, the civility level has fallen. And the article is right... >>>>I asked Friedersdorf if he could imagine that sort of relationship flourishing now between the Republican president and the top Democrats in Congress. "Absolutely not," he said. Sadly, I think he is right.<<<<< </I.