Jeroen:
I think what you are missing is that the Democrats are a leftist party,
*given the american electorate*. I know that they would be considered
right wing in Europe, but people in America are pretty conservative.
Being upset that we have a right wing party and a very right wing party
but no left wing party misses the point. There is no constituency for
a large left wing party in America. Sure, a Green/Social Democrat
party could drag itself up to 10% or so. But what will that get them?
Under our system, you need a majority to win office. So in order to
set national policy, you need to get 50%+1 of the vote in a state or
congressional district. There are some very liberal/leftist
congressional districts out there, but I don't know if there are ANY
that are 50%+1 green/social democrat. That's just the way we are over
here. Even if there are a few urban districts that vote in leftist
candidates, that is still only a few representatives out of 435. And
there are no states that are so consistently liberal that they would
elect a leftist (by European standards) senator.
The we get back to the presidential race. There are only a few jobs
that you can have before you are considered for president. You can be
a senator, a governor, a victorious general, or vice president. But in
order to become vice president you usually have to have been a governor
or senator, although sometimes you can squeak by as a congressional
representative like Cheney.
In any case, none of the third party candidates in the last three
elections have had these jobs first. Perot, Buchanan, Nader, none of
them has held high elective office before. Hell, forget high elected
office, none of them has held any elective office. Unless you've done
one of the top four jobs, you are not going to be president. Forget
it. So, Nader...why not run for a state office in California or
Massachussets or New York? Win that first. THEN come back and run for president.
=====
Darryl
Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially
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