First I must apologize to anyone worth a penny for watching CNN, but the US party primaries have been quite exciting and thus for my viewing pleasure. Still, I have many points of contention. The main one came today when Mr. Middle class himself, Lou Dobbs, proclaimed that the problem with America right now is that the view of the majority is not being represented, and that's the beauty of a democracy where the view of the majority is represented.
Well I must disagree. Sure, in a democracy the majority makes the final choice, but I think for a democracy to be effective, a multiplicity of views must be represented. That's what's wrong with America. In a way that's what's made the primaries so excited because if anyone wants to be president they have to come from one of the two big tents, democrat or republican. While that might make an exciting year of political tv, it makes for sub par policy. I don't think Romney out "conservativing" McCain is going to fix health care, nor do I think the Kennedy clan's desperate gesture to preserve their spot as top democrat family is going to bring the troops home, but it's definitely got people engaged. Let's look at what's being ignored though: take Ron Paul for instance, he was basically deliberately silenced by the silver fox himself during the last republican debate because his ideas were out of the mainstream. Well let me tell you something Mr. Cooper, not all, dare I say most of the good ideas don't come from the mainstream. The beauty of any well functioning democracy is that you can have a dynamic conversation with good ideas, hopefully with the best one selected.
For instance, take the Chretien Liberals. Even though they didn't have on major political opponent, they have a bunch of faction parties that would once in a while bring up a good idea. The people who would champion that idea as government would be the Chretien government, but they didn't necessarily invent the idea. That's the difference Mr. Dobbs, your system and increasingly ours is silencing those fringe voices that may be on to something that the bandwagon jumpers don't know about.
Good ideas are good ideas before the majority wants them to be implemented.
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I totally agree that an effective society requires the representation of a multiplicity of views -- the more, the better. It has been said many times that the democratic system is oppression by the majority. In the US, having essentially only two parties, this is especially true, since about half the population will always feel oppressed. (It's interesting that in a two-party system, the population is split 50/50.)
I think the only just system is one arrived at through consensus!
(hi ray :)
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