Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (14336)	11/11/1998 12:13:00 PM
From: Charles Hughes	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

>>>If this is to become the pattern for the future we might have to institute run off elections. Then the election season can be even longer and costlier. The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head again. There are some advantages to a two party system. <<< Most of the world, and most of the states and counties, deal successfully with run off elections. No big deal. We shouldn't be afraid of real democracy or of multiple parties. These are good tools. Strangely, it appears that Jesse 'the body' Ventura was the intellectual pick of the litter of the three candidates, and because of the campaign reform and contribution limits he was able to make that plain. I'll give him a year or two in office before I make him the poster boy for this, though. I'd hate for our poster boy to lose his temper and ruin the whole thing one day. Chaz

To: DMaA who wrote (14336)	11/11/1998 12:36:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 67261

Minnesota had the highest voter turnout of any state -- 61% -- and Ventura captured 37% (not 30%) of the vote. So Ventura may have won the support of just as large -- or almost as large -- a proportion of eligible voters as any of the other successful gubernatorial candidates. Of course, Minnesota may be a special case, with its history of having had a successful, strong local third party. (My dad once wrote a book on Minnesota politics up to 1938 -- entertaining reading, if I do say so.) Whereas I would agree that the two-party system has its advantages, it is also in danger of becoming (remaining??) sclerotic. In the natural course of things, parties sometimes die out (Whigs), and new ones are born (Republicans). But nowadays the money barrier is so high that this natural development is thwarted. I guess the real question for third parties, even if Minnesota-style campaign finance reform is extended to the rest of the country, will be -- how will they field an entire slate of candidates for local office (not to speak of national office)? Even in Minnesota, Jesse is all by his lonesome. Hence, he is in obvious danger of just being a "curiosity", a "fluke". jbe