Quote of the Day
From Tyler Cowen, this touches on some of my own views on party politics:
"...I just don't believe that any political party can be mass-captured by the intelligent and brought around to sanity. Parties exist, in part, to enforce feelings of interpersonal solidarity and to make people forget about critical thinking. We cannot avoid parties in a democracy, but there is already too much interest in parties as a vehicle for ideas."
Politics are like sports for people who don't like sports - it's as much about winning as for any larger ideas.
posted by The Offensive Coordinator @ 4:42 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Obviously, that idea rings even more true (can something even be "more true"?) in Canada. I've voted for parties most of the time, though a few candidates were worthwhile votes. We are supposed to vote for party platforms in elections here; it is when people vote for individuals that it gets all screwed up. If people didn't vote for "Paul Martin" or "Stephen Harper" specifically but "Liberal" or "Conservative" and the ideals each party represents, the process would go a lot more smoothly. But, it is not to be. I think with a republic, it would be great if everyone voted for individuals and individual ideas instead of along party lines, but that just cannot happen. There are too many candidates for everyone to have separate ideals; those who share ideals are bound to campaign together, and thus if you like x's ideas then you'll like y's; it would be better if those parties teamed up and became parties and all voted the same way and fought together for the same things; for instance, maybe there should be a party leader for the party that isn't in office. It would help solidfy those who think alike, or at least think mostly alike, which is the best you can do in a country of 300 million.
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