"But the world isn't like that."

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

--- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:

> In my opinion the only chance for America to return to democracy
> (given the
> latest decision on Bush's "Ermächtigungsgesetz") is a third party to
> have an
> alternative

Would that this were true. "Third parties" only have that effect in
parliamentary democracies where parties must form coalitions to govern,
and then appoint the executive. In the US, the executive is chosen by
popular vote on a state by state basis. (Which allows for some tricky
arithmetic, as we've seen. Remember how Bush used to deride "Washington
arithmetic" in his campaign? How he must smirk at what "fuzzy math" did
for him.) To vote for the third choice is to opt out, and see *every
single one* of your values and policy preferences set back, rather than
advanced. Without exception. 

Your Greens make policy in partnership at the cabinet level in the your
government's executive aparatus. I wish that a Green vote in the US
could have the same effect. Here, to vote Green election is to vote
Republican. I wish that it weren't true, but that's the fact. Perot had
a different effect, but then his
corporate-pseudo-populist/nationalist-and-all-but-neo-fascist pitch was
too complicated to parse, allowing him to draw from the same base of
confused have-nots that the Republicans have snookered for so long.
Giving us Bill Clinton, for whom I am still thankful.

Mark

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