[Rhodes22-list] Another way to look at it [politico-hystorical {sic}]

[Robert Skinner]

I think the current crop of debaters have it wrong.  

Elections have become just the jumping-off point for 
the (re)selection of leadership.  Given that we 
ossify the two-party system, stop searching for or 
neglect any new-found facts, dismiss reason in the 
name of loyalty, and decry compromise as a weakness, 
we are on a one-way trip to an oligarchy.

Once it has a chance to consolidate its gains with
judicial appointments and its economic policy with a
crushing national debt, there will be no way to unseat 
any entrenched party, whether or not it has a 
micro-majority -- because the ballot box no longer 
has relevance.

"It doesn't matter how the people vote.
What matters is who counts the votes."

/Joseph Stalin

Let's shift the discussion to where it may do some 
good.  Let's figure out what our options are at this 
point (are they diminishing daily?), where we want to 
go from here, how we can get there, and get about it.  

Mud only obscures our vision.

I do not live in terror of the future, or of a few 
deranged people with big weapons, but rather fear what 
we as a nation will loose if we don't get our economic 
act together and take a more cooperative stance in 
dealing with the rest of the world -- it's bigger than 
we are, in case anyone has not noticed, and our 
adverse balance of trade has mortgaged our ability to 
call the world-wide economic tune.

Time to get real, and take a broader view, doncha
think?

/Robert Skinner