Hippies still trying to ruin the country

I don't really know that much about the finer points of American politics, but one thing that stands out a mile, is that you lot are SO polarised it's a joke!

If you're a Democrat, you have Republicans ranting rabidly (see above) at you, which just basically comes down to playground name calling.

If you're a Republican, then you will receive pretty much the same treatment from Democrats.

There seems to be no discernable sign that anyone listens to the other.

You just rant and ridicule. All the time.

Surely this is not good for your country, if all Americans are like they are here on A2K.

Actually, it's quite amusing (bemusing as well) to just sit back and watch all this stuff kicking off on various threads, and makes for great entertainment to us outsiders.

But it does leave me with one reasonably serious question.

Do you have a political party that represents the middle ground? I would reckon that there are millions and millions of you that are sick and tired of the political polarisation in your country, and would welcome a third option.

So?.......

If the draft is reinstated, your "hippism" will receive a real growth spurt. As far as I'm concerned, it was the closest thing to the teaching and values of Jesus of Nazareth--which is to say that I see very evidence of the teachings of Jesus.

repuglicans just have their head way too way up their asses.

LordE, your points are well taken, but the pariticipants in the threads I visit regularly are MUCH more reasonable than are those of the political forum.

Vietnam, Pinochet, Savimbi, East Timor, etc. American atrocities are well documented. None can rightly be blamed on hippies. Make love.

First of all, you crusty old Limey, you're skating on thin ice . . .

But seriously folks . . .

Our system varies quite a bit from the Westminster system. Recently, a Tory in Ottawa was kicked out of the Conservative caucus because he had been critical of the PM's government--the excuse was that he had published caucus secrets on his blog. That can't happen in the United States. The national committees are organized by party politicians to raise money, ostensibly for all members of the party, but largely they confine their efforts to propaganda for mid-term elections, and for the Presidential elections. In fact, the parties are controlled at the state level--the national committee cannot kick any member out of the party. The state party organization could kick a member out, but only after he or she had completed the term for which he or she had been elected.

There is much less discipline in the parties in the United States than there is in Westminister, Ottawa, Canberra or Wellington. Democrats routinely vote for Republican measures, and Republicans routinely vote for Democratic measures. Elected officials in legislatures tend to vote their constituency, and everyone knows that, and everyone takes that into account. If the Majority leader is promoting a bill which the farm block hates, he or she will just look the other way when a member of his or her party from a rural district votes against it.

Therefore, you have "moderate" Republicans (Nelson Rockefeller was always the great example in my lifetime--Goldwater Republicans [the arch-conservatives] accused him of being "liberal"), and you have "conservative" Democrats. When Ronald Ray-gun was elected in 1980, pundits commented on the phenomenon of the "Reagan Democrats." These were conservative Democrats (mostly southerners or westerners) who voted for Reagan in preference to Carter. They nevetheless returned a Democratic Congress. It is not uncommon at all in American political history to see the White House in the hands of one party, and the Congress controlled by the other. So Reagan and Pappy Bush faced Democratic Congresses, and in the 1994 mid-term election, the Republicans took control of the Congress while the Democrat Clinton was in the White House for the following six years (including being re-elected).

A few years ago, there was a big flap in Texas because Tom Delay (then the Majority Leader--Republican--in the House of Representatives) wanted to redistrict the state of Texas, so as to increase the Republican majority in the House. The problem was that to accomplish this, he had to gerrymander the districts to put the rural, conservative Democratic districts in with urban, Republican districts. The Democrats in the Texas state house left, and at one point even took up residence in motels in the neighboring state of Oklahoma, to prevent the Texas legislature from getting a quorum to put through the redistricting measure. In rural Texas, voters have long returned conservative Democrats to the House and Senate, even though those same voters voted for Republican Presidents.

There is a middle ground in American politics, and though it primarily resides in the Democratic party, there are moderate Republicans, too. Equally true is that there are many conservative Democrats and Republicans who do not support the current administration--that's why the mid-term election that just took place was like a truck hitting the Republican party--they had pissed off the voters, and American voters actually do vote their beliefs, rather than just a party line. I also suspect that many American voters secretly view with glee the prospect of a President from one party facing a Congress controlled by the other party. The recent mid-term election was strong evidence that many people who once voted Bush and Republican were unhappy, and willing to take it out on the Republicans at the polls.

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It is a common belief in America that it is impolite to discuss religion or politics in public, and especially at parties or other supposedly cordial gatherings. If i am some place public, i won't engage in such discussions, and if someone insists, i'll tell them to shut up, or just move myself.

I once was sitting with a friend in a restaurant, near a table with several elderly customers. In the course of our discussion, i happened to remark on Social Security, and then said "if there's any money left when i get to be that age." (This was at a time when the Congress was looting the Social Security Trust Fund as though there were no tomorrow). One of the elderly women became loudly hysterical, wanting to know if she would lose her Social Security check, and the elderly men with her sought to calm her, with one of them speaking very harshly to me for having made the comment. I told him that if he would mind his own business, he wouldn't have that problem--but basically, i considered that he was correct. Politics is not a good topic for public discussion--and we hadn't even been talking politics.

Keep in mind that this forum is an extraordinary venue, and does not necessarily represent life in these United States (a Reader's Digest reference that Americans will understand). For example, you would almost never meet someone in a public place who would be willing to rant in such a ridiculous manner as you will see Blueflame do.