The Radical Middle?

[sean]

Via The Radical Middle

 

Turn off The O'Reilly Factor. Take Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them back to the bookstore. It can be satisfying to think of our political opponents as unprincipled and corrupt, and a threat to democracy and decency, but what kind of dialogue are we creating? And what kind of world do we expect to come from that?

 

Most Americans aren't nearly as polarized as the media suggest. Most of us aren't at some mushy middle point either. Talk -- really sit down and talk -- with your neighbors, colleagues, friends, and here is what you'll find:

 

There is a hunger in this country for a new kind of politics.

 

There is a hunger for a politics that can take us beyond the usual venomous blame games in Washington, D.C.

 

There is a hunger for a politics that appreciates the genuine and often very reasonable concerns of the left and right, and builds on them toward something new.

 

There is a hunger for a politics that's idealistic but without illusions, a politics that dares to suggest real solutions to our biggest problems but doesn't lose touch with the often harsh facts on the ground.

 

There is a hunger for a politics that expresses us as we really are -- practical and visionary, mature and imaginative, sensible and creative, all at once.

 

Our politics today doesn't express either our practical, grounded side or our visionary, creative side.

 

It is all about the short term, not the long term. It is all about blaming others for our problems, not about turning our problems into opportunities by addressing them in the forthright, imaginative ways you know we can.

[Cameron]

Cool. Also, and I know it's a long shot, but it would be pretty cool if that whole honesty thing was eventually introduced into government and politics. I have to think that's a good start. When your always just dealing with opinions and beliefs and irrational conflict for the sake of conflict(or ego or whatever) it's hard to even approach real honest dialogue. And maybe even do it without yelling your opinions too. Could you imagine our leaders and leaders of other countries sitting down and calmly, honestly discussing things .Would be radical.

[thelerner]

They started it

 

.

 

 

 

 

Elections are turning into billion dollar sound bites and smear campaigns. Humorously you smear members of your own party during primaries before turning your agents, provocateurs and spin doctors on the other side.

 

I have vague hopes that Obama and McCain wouldn't stoop to such a level, which shows a stunning naivete.

 

 

 

 

Michael

[Smile]

At this point, I don't see your vote matter anymore. Just look at what happens with electronic voting and all the fraud being uncovered in OH. It's not about who is in congress or who the president is. The top of the pyramid is not them but the rich families who control your food, water, medicine, education etc. I posted a video on HT forum of the future of our food industry and it's pretty sad to see how corrupt the system is.

 

It's pretty convincing, at least to me, that everything going on now is made purposely to weaken, sicken or kill as much people as they can, in addition to ruin them financially. I was researching the medical industry for some time now, and the amount of crime and fraud to suppress the treatments that work is just staggering. It seems all $-driven, but if you look closer it's all about control.

 

 

M.

[Yoda]

What are the countries that have three party systems? How are they doing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that they don't do much better. Maybe even worse... the third party might steal enough votes to allow a real nutter to get in office. Who knows...

 

 

I'm guessing it's Kerry vs McCain with McCain winning.

[thelerner]

Hey Y. I could deal with that. There is good news. Cancer rates are down. Crime is way down from a decade or two ago. Organics are no longer fringe, we have good examples of bad government to point to.

 

Michael

[Yoda]

that is good news! thanks!

[Pietro]

What are the countries that have three party systems? How are they doing? Correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that they don't do much better. Maybe even worse... the third party might steal enough votes to allow a real nutter to get in office. Who knows...

I'm guessing it's Kerry vs McCain with McCain winning.

 

The 3 party system does not work, because they 3 parties are generally divided into right, left, and center, with the right and left that would NEVER EVER UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES join forces and make a government together. With the accusation of Fascist! Communist! they block the new possibilities, on the other side no party ever is able to govern alone. So the result is that the center is in EVERY SINGLE government, and so is de facto able to impose its point of view. We had a similar system in Italy for ages. It was not three parties, but we had a strong Christian center, and any law that was against the Christian values was stopped. So was for abortion, so was for divorce, and so on. They only were imposed to the politicians with a Referendum. The solution is not just to have more parties, but detach them from a position in a one dimensional space. There are some studies about it that are being done where you take what each parliamentary has voted, and use it to plot it into a multidimensionality space (maybe 100 dimension or similar). Then you squeeze this space into 2 dimensions, using mathemathical modeling. Or you just get a person to tell you what would he vote for, and find out what parliamentaries are near him. Of course the more something is simple the more people will easily understand it. Which undermine most of those efforts