jmsbrdy

About Me


My Other Sites
Twitter
Tags
Get Updates
Filed under

politics

See all posts on posterous with this tag »
 

yes we could've

Media_httpiimgurcomop_gpdld

Filed under  //  pic   politics  
Comments (0)
Posted
 

my favourite part of robert byrd's 50 years in the senate

Goosebumps every time:

At 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon -- nine hours before the 1 a.m. vote that would effectively clinch the legislation's passage -- Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) went to the Senate floor to propose a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray."

It was difficult to escape the conclusion that Coburn was referring to the 92-year-old, wheelchair-bound Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) who has been in and out of hospitals and lay at home ailing. It would not be easy for Byrd to get out of bed in the wee hours with deep snow on the ground and ice on the roads -- but without his vote, Democrats wouldn't have the 60 they needed.

 
[...]
 
Coburn was wearing blue jeans, an argyle sweater and a tweed jacket with elbow patches when he walked back into the chamber a few minutes before 1 a.m. He watched without expression when Byrd was wheeled in, dabbing his eyes and nose with tissues, his complexion pale. When his name was called, Byrd shot his right index finger into the air as he shouted "aye," then pumped his left fist in defiance.

Filed under  //  politics   words  
Comments (0)
Posted
 

People opposed to proportional representation due to the voice it would give to the far right are mislead

Despite finishing a distant 3rd (in terms of seats), the Liberal Democrats are currently wielding more power than Labour, as it is up to them whether to form a coalition with the Conservatives, and on what terms that coalition might be formed.

There have been hints at electoral reform from all sides, and a move to proportional representation might be on the cards, as it would undoubtedly benefit Lib Dem in future elections.

There have also been warnings that PR would have given the far-right a lot of clout in Westminster - something like 30 seats (between UKIP and the BNP) versus 6 or 7 for the Green party, for example. Although the plural of anecdote isn't data, tweets like this show people are worried about the disruptive effect those extreme conservatives could have:

Why I don't want PR: today, the BNP would have 20 seats, UKIP 23, we'd have a hung parliament and the Tories would be negotiating with them.

Aside: searching twitter for UKIP, BNP and PR is interesting: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=ukip+bnp+pr

However, I completely disagree with that argument, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, as Ben Goldacre says, "they're despicable, but they're citizens". Every political group obviously has a tendency to regard their position and policies as superior, but we cannot be so arrogant as to disenfranchise people we disagree with. The idea of using electoral procedure to silence a large swathe of the population should be abhorrent to us.

Secondly, the difficulty those extreme parties have had in gaining representation in Westminster plays into their hands to some extent, as it allows them to paint themselves as the scrappy, plucky, ugly underdog that would have succeeded if it wasn't for The Man setting unfair rules. Decades of Disney films have inured us to sympathise with that position.

Lastly, but most importantly: between them, UKIP and the BNP got 5% of the vote nationally. That's an enormous number, and is way, way up compared to the last election. The fact that their policies are so distasteful to us, and yet so popular in certain areas and in certain demographics shows us there's clearly something going on that we don't understand. And they are not all brainwashed morons; they're not all unable to comprehend the liberal viewpoint: they just choose not to buy into it.

As Noam Chomsky said, these are real people with real grievances, and the only politicians effectively communicating with them, and giving them an outlet to channel their disenchantment into, is the far-right.

These are real people, and their viewpoint is just as valid as yours; if it comes from a position of ignorance, it is because the media and the major political parties have not done anything like a good enough job to show them viable alternatives. We are ignorant of their environment and their pressures.

We shouldn't be hoping to silence or ignore these voters, and we can't afford to ridicule them for the views they hold because disenfranchisement, either real or imagined, is what leads to true extremism. There's already over 1.5 million people in that category, and it's growing fast.

Filed under  //  election   politics   words  
Comments (0)
Posted