us elections

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Aug 7 09:48:16 PDT 2002


At 03:47 PM 8/7/2002 +0000, justin wrote: Dennis thinks the Dems and Pubs should be considered a single entity. I
>>think Nader himself may have said that what America needs is a "real" second
>>party.
>
>In a manner of speaking I agree with him. I call 'em the Republocrats
>myself. jks

C'mon justin - you cannot seriously say that. It's hard to deny that the difference between Clinton (with all his faults) and the current occupant of the white house is like day and night.

I agree that the US electoral system is seriously fucked. But I also think that the popular expectations of an ideal politician as a saviour on a white horse is crap. What really matters is not personality or even how the politicians are picked, but whether there is an effective system for various public interest to keep them in check. In the US, that system is rather weak when compared to the parliamentary systems and coalition governments in Europe - but another problem is that most of the US public is either not interested in politics at all or is interested in it in a very superficial and ritualistic way.

wojtek



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