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Politics : Clinton's Scandals: Is this corruption the worst ever? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jim S who wrote (7366)	9/29/1998 5:22:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13994

Jim -- You have a point (alas). Maybe the real advantage of having at least one third party is that it gives us the opportunity to cast an occasional protest vote. <gg> Since we know that the candidate we are voting for will not win, we don't really have to support him. We are simply sending the message to the candidates of the major parties that they have lost our confidence. Staying home and not voting at all is no way to do that, because it implies that we just don't care. jbe

To: Jim S who wrote (7366)	9/29/1998 6:34:00 PM
From: j_b	Respond to of 13994

<<but hopefully most of us don't vote for a candidate based on a single issue. >> Let's see, people vote Republican because of the abortion issue, gun control or tax relief, and people vote Democrat because of affirmative action, labor union support, gun control or abortion. Most people pick one or two of those issues and vote accordingly. Unfortunately, I think most of us DO vote for a candidate based on a single issue (or maybe two issues).

To: Jim S who wrote (7366)	9/29/1998 7:46:00 PM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 13994

Hi Jim S; Regarding the two-party system... I think it's great!!! Compared, of course, to the alternatives. What I like about it is that the extremists never get elected. I know. I know. A good percentage of both party's members believe the other party to elect extremists all the time. The reason the parties seem so extreme to us is that we are examining them with a magnifying glass. To a real extremist, the Republicans and the Democrats are identical parties. The Republicrats. (Notice that the Republicans get the first half of the word!) The wonderful effect of the two party system is that the radical right is never quite able to push through its program of removing civil rights from everybody who isn't a particular brand of Christian. But the communists never quite are able to outlaw the ownership of all private property, either. Instead, the two parties end up fighting like rabid dogs over two alternative budgets that differ by only a few percent. I like this! Even though I am sure that I could run things better, at least this way I never have to wake up and discover that all my jewish neighbors have been recquisitioned for slave labor. Or that the local hospital has had all its patients assassinated. Instead, politically, this nation is as dull as dishwater. I like it that way. It wasn't always like that. There once was a (third party influenced) election that resulted in the Republicans and Democrats fighting with real weapons for years. Afterwards, they called it the Civil war, and blamed or blessed it on all kind of reasons, but in some ways, it was just another stupid political conflict similar to the ones that are constantly happening in one corner of the world or another. The citizens of Constantinople once got into an amazingly stupid civil war that killed 60,000 people. The two sides, "blue" and "green" corresponded to two of the four standard chariot racing colors used in the circus. It was a sports war. We're actually pretty civilized, now. I like that. I don't know what multiple parties would do, but historically, this country has been at its most stable when it was dominated by two parties. Third parties allow minority governments, and that is where extremism blossoms. Sometimes extremism is the right thing. An example is the Republican party's position on slavery. But extremism is still a dangerous thing, and, as a tool, it cuts both ways. -- Carl