Yes or No to the AV Vote? Page 7

Quote: DaButt @ April 9 2011, 5:15 PM BST

I worked in the newsroom of a daily newspaper for many years and the people who were doing the smearing were my friends. All in all they reported the news well but would privately admit that they coloured the coverage to accentuate their views on politics. Views which were universally Democratic and liberal, I needn't bother adding.

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If the liberal media were such effective smearers how come anybody ever votes Republican? How come more US presidents have been Republican? How come a man as reviled as George Bush could ever be elected if the liberals were that effective at the dark arts?

The media has its biases but they don't elect the president, the people do. That doesn't mean that the bias doesn't exist.

By the way, Republicans have spent 88 years in the White House while Democrats have served 85. Add in 2 more years for Obama and things are pretty much dead even. This country switches from a Democratic presidency to a Republican one every few years, thus maintaining a fairly down-the-middle course and that's just fine with me.

Quote: DaButt @ April 9 2011, 4:45 PM BST

I'd love to see General Petraeus run; he'd run away with the election.

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Eisenhower did a reasonable job . . didn't he?

Quote: Oldrocker @ April 10 2011, 12:01 AM BST

Eisenhower did a reasonable job . . didn't he?

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I have no personal experience with the 1950s but the U.S. military consistently polls above politicians these days. They are trusted over politicians by something like 100:1.

Quote: DaButt @ April 10 2011, 3:18 AM BST

I have no personal experience with the 1950s but the U.S. military consistently polls above politicians these days. They are trusted over politicians by something like 100:1.

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And the minute military men got involved in the political process the shine would come off them and they'd become just another comprimised politician. As Enoch Powell said, "All political careers end in failure."

Quote: DaButt @ April 10 2011, 3:18 AM BST

I have no personal experience with the 1950s but the U.S. military consistently polls above politicians these days. They are trusted over politicians by something like 100:1.

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Trusted to do their job

I'm sure people trust politicians to do their jobs, which is basically to lie

Quote: Godot Taxis @ April 9 2011, 3:32 AM BST

The problem with the voting system in the UK is not the method that the votes are cast under but more the presence of a third party which splits the left/liberal vote and allows in the Tory party, which is not so much a political party as a pressure group for the rich.

Although it is a shithole jammed with c**ts, the U.K. is not a conservative country naturally - not in the Cameron sense of conservative anyway.

Instead of voting for an electoral change we should be organising the seppuku of the smaller third party.

Regarding the proposed AV change the logical thing to do is vote YES as it will make it harder for the Tories to get elected, but AV is fundamentally undemocratic and even idiotic. Nobody should be forced to give support (no matter how small) to parties that they do not believe in.

The change should be for a single transferable vote, along with compulsory voting and some training for people in political and democratic theory.

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STV also maintains a constituency system and gives votes an equal weighting.

Noticed in Holland under their PR system they have D66 a left of centre liberal party (like the pre Clegg Lib Dems ) which sides with Labour and the PVV which is a more free market liberal party and sides with the Cristian Democrats. You know where you stand unike the Lib Dems these days with their opportunisitic dishonesty about who they are and what they beleive in.

Think Nick Clegg is resigning, all that crying about hospitals has got to him.

Quote: DaButt @ April 9 2011, 5:30 PM BST

The media has its biases but they don't elect the president, the people do.

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They didn't elect Bush the first time round though did they? Was there not some shenanigans?

Quote: dellas @ April 11 2011, 2:22 AM BST

Think Nick Clegg is resigning, all that crying about hospitals has got to him.

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And the sun is shining!

Quote: Marc P @ April 11 2011, 7:57 AM BST

They didn't elect Bush the first time round though did they? Was there not some shenanigans?

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Indeed Marc. W was appointed by the Supreme Court thanks to some guy called Chad.

Bush won the election. It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless. Al Gore was a senator from Tennesee and didn't even win his home state. The presidency would have been his had he done so. My hat is off to them for keeping that self-righteous blowhard out of the White House.

Quote: DaButt @ April 11 2011, 8:29 AM BST

Bush won the election. It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless. Al Gore was a senator from Tennesee and didn't even win his home state. The presidency would have been his had he done so. My hat is off to them for keeping that self-righteous blowhard out of the White House.

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Yes, Bush getting in was great for America and great for the world. Which is now a much safer place thanks to him spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Quote: chipolata @ April 11 2011, 8:33 AM BST

Yes, Bush getting in was great for America and great for the world. Which is now a much safer place thanks to him spreading democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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You'll recall that America's fights with Iraq and Al Qaeda began long before he took office. President Gore would have fought the same wars.

Perhaps like President's Clinton and Obama he would have avoided sending in ground troops, dismantling the entire civil society and miring the US in it's bloodies wars since Vietnam?

[quote name="DaButt" post="749703" date="April 11 2011, 8:29 AM BST" Al Gore was a senator from Tennesee and didn't even win his home state. [/quote]
What on earth has that got to do with anything? Is the USA"s parochialism that specific? Do you still have the wrong sides of the street there?