"L&O Character" Looks To Shake Up The Political System - Unity '08

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An Internet based 3rd party that is looking to hold a virtual convention...I like it!

I thought voting for anything other than the two big party tickets was a waste of time

YES!!!

I will vote for Fred Thompson even if he's a satan worshiping vampire if he makes Sam the AG!

It usually is, but this idea is less loopy than the majority of the 3rd parties that exist in our country. The idea here is to establish an actual moderate party, not one that bends to one extreme or the other, and that actually IS novel, for a 3rd party in this country. Now whether I end up actually supporting this depends on how its carried out. The idea is good, but I'm already questioning who they are courting...

Also, I like the idea of the virtual convention. I think our Congress needs to be brought into the 21st century. None of this vote missing shit just because your representative isn't in Washington. That's what fucking videoconferencing is for. A virtual convention is a good first step towards that and candidates that embrace this technology may bring about other technological changes.

What exactly would this new party's platform be? That and that alone can compel me to support them.

EDIT: The following exerpt from their website has me leary of them already.

Moderate = populist.

No thanks, if there's anything worse than extremism, it's making decisions with a licked finger in the air.

If I had my own party, and God willing I will, the platform would be responsibility.

Personal, fiscal, diplomatic. We take care of our own and ourselves, we pay our debts, and we mean it when we give our word.

That's um, not what populism is.

Actually, that's more politics period. Populism is generally whatever is in the best interests of the majority, not merely what's popular.

Well good luck getting any of the current off-the-wall 3rd parties elected...

Also, Chris has the right definition for a populist. It is not synonymous with moderate.

In the game that is politics, that's um, what "moderate" exactly is. Being a moderate is a facade for trying to appeal to the widest range of voters as possible. Of course, that's not true if you believe that any third party must be virtuous by default.

No retard, I'm arguing with your notion that centrism is interchangeable with populism, and that populism is merely what's "popular".

I will agree that centrism is however what's popular.

Any third party will just become a bastardized version of the two we currently got anyway.

Your mistake is taking a third party's line at face value just because it must be better than the other two.

I never said centrism and populism were interchangable, merely what the reality of anyone claiming to be a moderate is really saying. But thanks for the big save there, Mr. Thesaurus.

Can't agree there.

Moderate means that you take your various issues a la carte rather than ordering them as a packaged seven course meal from the party menu...and nothing at all to do with a moistened finger

No...centrism is merely a centrist view, neither decidedly right nor decidedly left, but an overall one which can be every bit as steadfast, unwavering and nonpopulist as an extremist view.

And I'm saying that anybody who's running for office claiming to be a moderate is really full of shit and not who he says he is.

Which essentially suggests that the further away a person is on the political compass from (0,0), the more legitimate their politics are

Personally, I would say the opposite...the further away from (0,0) on the political compass one gets, the more likely their issues will require some degree of hypocrisy to justify them

Being an extremist is not virtuous by default either...

Hmmm. I'd substitute politician for person and genuine for legitimate.

Quite the paradox, isn't it? I'm thinking of calling it Ramen's Theorem of Published Paradoxical Political Public Policy.

"Moderate"

"Third way"

How I hate those words.

I'd say a politican is as entitled to be a genuine centrist (doesn't mean they actually are) as a rank and file citizen is

I can see how stepping away from two and towards three would be exasperating for someone who strives so longingly for one

Of course. Doesn't mean I'm going to start trusting the fucker, though.

One is the loneliest number.

We already have an actual substantively moderate party; it's called the Democratic Party. The idea here seems more to be to have moderate politics, not moderate substance, which is something that really doesn't work at all, unfortunately.

I never quit laughing long enough to read the next part!

It's cute that that assertion still gets made every now and again

The Democratic party is not a moderate party.

Well, I'm sure they seem that way in relation to the death roll we're stuck in between imperialists in conservative clothing, and islamo-fascists, but...

Fuck you, imbecile.