Voting and the two party system
Nov. 7th, 2006 11:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ayoubThis is merely my opinion... Feel free to discuss :)
Voting; the right to choose your leaders, is something people fought and died for. Men toppled monarchies to have a democracy. Women protested until they had a vote. All the ethnic groups fought hard to be given this right. To not vote, and to ignore your right to choose a leader, is an insult to their efforts and memory. The weight of every lost soldier, suffragette, murdered slave, and revolutionary, is behind the power to vote.
A three or more party system is a good thing, but its main weakness as I see it, is when it comes to having clear leadership. A country needs a clear and shared vision among those who are chosen to lead it.
Between Labour (Democrat) and Conservative (Republican), here in the UK, stand the Liberals. The Liberals barely had enough candidates at the last election to form a majority, and it takes a majority to make those difficult choices.The majority here in England, in my view have made some very bad choices, but can I trust a hung parliament to lead? Can I trust a parliament with no clear direction to manage the country in a crisis?
The benefit of a two party system is in the ability for one or the other to have a majority, but the weakness is in having to pick the lesser of two evils. The Conservatives here would have gone to war quicker than the Labour party. Once Tony Blair is replaced, I would have no hesitation in voting Labour, because until the Liberals can prove they have the numbers to rule, I feel any vote for them is wasted, in that, it would take a vote away from Labour, and increase the chance of a Conservative government.
Two party politics sucks, but I'll stick with it until a third party can prove it has the power to lead... And that hasn't happened here yet.
Special note to my siblings: I know you guys are for multi-party politics, and I'm not trying to offend you, but you know how it is when I start thinking about stuff like this, I just have to get it out!
Voting; the right to choose your leaders, is something people fought and died for. Men toppled monarchies to have a democracy. Women protested until they had a vote. All the ethnic groups fought hard to be given this right. To not vote, and to ignore your right to choose a leader, is an insult to their efforts and memory. The weight of every lost soldier, suffragette, murdered slave, and revolutionary, is behind the power to vote.
A three or more party system is a good thing, but its main weakness as I see it, is when it comes to having clear leadership. A country needs a clear and shared vision among those who are chosen to lead it.
Between Labour (Democrat) and Conservative (Republican), here in the UK, stand the Liberals. The Liberals barely had enough candidates at the last election to form a majority, and it takes a majority to make those difficult choices.The majority here in England, in my view have made some very bad choices, but can I trust a hung parliament to lead? Can I trust a parliament with no clear direction to manage the country in a crisis?
The benefit of a two party system is in the ability for one or the other to have a majority, but the weakness is in having to pick the lesser of two evils. The Conservatives here would have gone to war quicker than the Labour party. Once Tony Blair is replaced, I would have no hesitation in voting Labour, because until the Liberals can prove they have the numbers to rule, I feel any vote for them is wasted, in that, it would take a vote away from Labour, and increase the chance of a Conservative government.
Two party politics sucks, but I'll stick with it until a third party can prove it has the power to lead... And that hasn't happened here yet.
Special note to my siblings: I know you guys are for multi-party politics, and I'm not trying to offend you, but you know how it is when I start thinking about stuff like this, I just have to get it out!
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-08 12:22 am (UTC)The fact that many people here to day vote based on the most superficial reasons is what irks me to no end. For example, if someone tells me they voted Democrat and I ask them why, their response is usually "because I always vote Democrat." When I ask them what platform is the Democratic candidate running on, they can't answer. Some even become defensive and say something like, "It doesn't matter! I wouldn't be caught dead voting Republican!" If I engage them further and tell them they don't have to vote for a Republican, but can actually vote a 3rd party candidate (if one is on the ballot) if they think he or she is presenting a better way of running government affairs, they give me that RCA dog head tilt and that "WTF?" look in their eyes.
While the right to vote is a privilege to all of us here in the free world, an informed vote is worth more than its weight in gold.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-08 04:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-08 04:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-08 07:40 pm (UTC)Yep, and we had a great chat about it too! :D