Chris -
This is why libertarians believe in divided government. The donkeys and
elephants both steal and abuse power, but they have somewhat different
constituencies. Keeping the government at least partly divided between them
guarantees the honesty of thieves.
That's why I'm hoping our president will
soon be blessed with a worthy opponent, the way Clinton had Gingrich and
Reagan had Tip O'Neil. And I think Bush -- and all of us -- would have been
much better off if Pelosi had taken the Speaker's gavel in 02.
And I would like more division, not simple (bi)polarity. I want
Libertarian and Green and ??? candidates on the ballot and in the
offices. I want the Dems to spin off a Progressive branch and the Pubs
to spin off a Hard-Core Conservative branch. And I want our election
rules to support this, not suppress it. I want run-off elections so we
can vote for OUR favorite candidate first, then vote for OUR lesser evil
candidate second, making it obvious when there is no "mandate", when
there is strong opposition to the lesser of evils when finally
installed, etc.
I'm not that up on other forms of election rules in the world and how
well they work, but I have to believe there is a better mode than ours
which seems to guarantee wild oscillations between polar opposites (or
worse yet, the illusion of this while the opposites are merely
brightly-differently colored variants of the same damn thing).
- Steve
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