Comments on: “We Can’t Afford You!!!!!” http://www.thetalentshow.org/2004/04/01/we-cant-afford-you/ Just another WordPress weblog Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:04:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Michael http://www.thetalentshow.org/2004/04/01/we-cant-afford-you/comment-page-1/#comment-2289 Michael Fri, 02 Apr 2004 03:20:04 +0000 http://www.thetalentshow.org/wp/?p=870#comment-2289 Actually, with the proper safeguard built in, I think proportional representation might just be one way to save us from a lot of the crap the wingnuts and the fundies want to cram down our throats. We do what the Germans did with their <i>Grundgesetz</i> in 1949. They learned their lesson from the Weimar fiasco, which allowed any party that got votes to get a seat in the <i>Reichstag,</i> and it truly killed the democratic process. As the Weimar political climate heated up, the electorate got more and more fragmented, and forming a ruling coalition was harder and harder to do. By the time Hitler got himself appointed <i>Reichskanzler</i> in 1933, the democratic process was already dead: most of the legislation in the previous year had been by presidential emergency decree under Article 48. But after the second war, they changed the representation somewhat. Now you have to win at least 5% of the vote to get a seat in the <i>Reichstag.</i> And that, I think, would be what saved us. Because I don't think there are as many as 5% of the truly wingnutty out there--or if there are, they don't have all that much in the way of numbers. Let them send Roy Moore to Congress, where he'll be one lone, loony vote among at least 434 others. All the wingnuts will then have someone they know represents them and their views, and perhaps (if God is very good to us) that will keep them happier than they are now. Meanwhile, there are Greens, and Socialists, and Social Democrats, and Blue Dog Democrats, and Log Cabin Republicans, and all the other mixes in there, too. It's going to be a lot harder to win an absolute majority in the House, and that means we're not going to see any more DeLaying tactics--no more of shutting out the opposition parties from conference committees, no more stacking the agenda, and no more of this "we'll do what we want because we can and you can go screw if you don't like it" attitude. You don't want to piss off people you may need to get a majority for something you <i>do</i> want passed. The other advantage is, of course, that at least the major constituent groups in each district get a representative or two (or more) in proportion to their numbers of votes. So everybody (or nearly so) gets to have a voice in Congress, instead of half the voters (or more, depending on how many candidates were in the race) having to suffer under a representative that won't even give them the time of day, much less stand up for their rights or advocate for their positions. Actually, with the proper safeguard built in, I think proportional representation might just be one way to save us from a lot of the crap the wingnuts and the fundies want to cram down our throats. We do what the Germans did with their Grundgesetz in 1949. They learned their lesson from the Weimar fiasco, which allowed any party that got votes to get a seat in the Reichstag, and it truly killed the democratic process. As the Weimar political climate heated up, the electorate got more and more fragmented, and forming a ruling coalition was harder and harder to do. By the time Hitler got himself appointed Reichskanzler in 1933, the democratic process was already dead: most of the legislation in the previous year had been by presidential emergency decree under Article 48. But after the second war, they changed the representation somewhat. Now you have to win at least 5% of the vote to get a seat in the Reichstag.

And that, I think, would be what saved us. Because I don’t think there are as many as 5% of the truly wingnutty out there–or if there are, they don’t have all that much in the way of numbers. Let them send Roy Moore to Congress, where he’ll be one lone, loony vote among at least 434 others. All the wingnuts will then have someone they know represents them and their views, and perhaps (if God is very good to us) that will keep them happier than they are now.

Meanwhile, there are Greens, and Socialists, and Social Democrats, and Blue Dog Democrats, and Log Cabin Republicans, and all the other mixes in there, too. It’s going to be a lot harder to win an absolute majority in the House, and that means we’re not going to see any more DeLaying tactics–no more of shutting out the opposition parties from conference committees, no more stacking the agenda, and no more of this “we’ll do what we want because we can and you can go screw if you don’t like it” attitude. You don’t want to piss off people you may need to get a majority for something you do want passed.

The other advantage is, of course, that at least the major constituent groups in each district get a representative or two (or more) in proportion to their numbers of votes. So everybody (or nearly so) gets to have a voice in Congress, instead of half the voters (or more, depending on how many candidates were in the race) having to suffer under a representative that won’t even give them the time of day, much less stand up for their rights or advocate for their positions.

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