Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

We almost had a third party with Ross Perot & his running mates...

Unfortunately, the media spent a lot of time equating having a different opinion to being a crackpot.

Now we (again) only have 2 viable parties.

I was never so ashamed of being an American as I was the day after the vice-presidential debate. Admiral Stockdale had a Vietnam flashback in front of God & everybody and all we could do (as
a group) was poke fun at him.

-- AND --

Did you ever notice that President Bush (the Last one) was pro NAFTA and the Democratic leadership was against it.. and as soon as Bill Clinton got elected HE was pro NAFTA and the Republican leadership was against it?

Reminds me of the shell game.

Again, best wishes Brazil.

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

The parties are becoming more and more the same thing with each passing year.

The media is too ultra liberal to give an unbiased account of anything.

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

"I agree with you. The US should have a minimum of three parties and money should be removed from the equation. All the parties should have equal opportunity to speak their views to the people...all the people through all available media equally. In the end it is our money they use for their agenda."

There's this little problem with that called the first amendment. And really, every law on this made, ways are found to skirt it, which means more restrictions are called for, which- etc etc etc.

Phoenix-D

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

congratulations to brasil.

i agree with Phoenix-D about us being a Republic.
i think there should be a none of the above option on the ballot.

edit: from tesco Samoa's horrorscope for today

Aries: (March 21—April 19)
You know, the stars are beginning to suspect that it is no longer possible for a competent person to be elected president of this nation.

Thats me.

[ January 02, 2003, 06:32: Message edited by: desdinova ]

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

Democracy/Republic isn't the problem. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

your right its not, but i think it would be interesting to see how many people would vote none of the above. maybe if there were enough then the Groups that run the government might realize we are not happy with the existing choices and make changes. i was an idea from Brewsters Millions, and it thought i actually made sense.

edit: spelling

[ January 02, 2003, 06:53: Message edited by: desdinova ]

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

None of the above needs to have teeth... like.... if none of the above wins, then there is another election and these jokers can't run.!!!!

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

Voter turnout has been steadily decreasing every year for a long time now (I don't remember how long). That is about the same as voting none of the above.

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

Our form of democracy may not be perfect, but I'm grateful that it is not like some other parts of the world. A few months ago, there was an election in Iraq. Saddam Hussein won 100% of the votes and was re-elected president. The ballots only had "yes" or "no" as the choices. If you voted "no", you faced possible execution!

Re: OT: New Brazilian President
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">More importantly, the newspapers and TV channels are controlled by ppl who stand to profit from one party or another, and so can and will prevent certain things from being reported. As long as the media control is split fairly between the parties that isn't such a bad thing, but media is becoming more and more monopolised.

That is one of the good things about the UK (although I'm sure we have at least as much corruption in our political system as anyone else) - we have the BBC. It's owned by the people and (in theory at least) completely unbiased. Of course it's just a matter of time before some government or other flogs it off to Rupert Murdoch to be rebranded, strip mined and obliterated like every other public service we ever used to have.