The structure of US politics is very different to what we know in Australia, but I read something today that really struck a chord:
‘If a party stands for nothing but reelection, it indeed stands for nothing.‘
That quote comes from a joint editorial published in The Washington Post. It was written by three Republican contenders for the Presidential nomination. They put aside their own personal ambitions and political differences, to protest what they see as the sabotaging of democracy in America.
For Australians who are not familiar with the American system, candidates within each political party compete publicly with each other to determine who will be the best candidate to fight the actual presidential election. Usually this is done via state primaries.
But not this time. Four US states have cancelled their primaries on the basis that Donald Trump ‘will’ win in a landslide so why waste the money? But it’s not about the money. Each of those states will vote for Trump to be the presidential candidate without consulting any of the voters in that state. As primaries are a core step in the US electoral process, this is a massive departure from normal democracy.
You can, and should, read the entire post by Jill Dennison to understand how truly disruptive this development is:
https://jilldennison.com/2019/09/14/three-republicans-speak-up/
Sadly, the Australian experience of politics has been echoing that of the US since the sacking of Kevin Rudd in 2010. Our political system is very different, but almost everything that’s happened in the last decade has been about one party or the other giving democracy the finger in order to be re-elected.
- Rudd sacked in favour of Gillard
- Gillard sacked in favour of Rudd
- Tony Abbot sacked in favour of Malcolm Turnbull
- Turnbull sacked in favour of Scott Morrison
To be fair, in the Australia system, parties choose who will lead them into an election. Parties also have the right to choose someone else to lead them, even in the middle of an election cycle, so the revolving door of Prime Ministers is ‘legal’:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Australia
But is the letter of the law abusing the spirit of the law?
Much of the nitty gritty of Australian politics is ruled by convention rather than laws laid down by the Constitution. As such, our Prime Minister is important to the voting public, but isn’t actually granted special status in the Constitution. That said, convention or perhaps the rule of common courtesy has meant that once elected, a sitting Prime Minister is not ousted by his own party [note: I’m no historian so I’d welcome clarification of this].
When Kevin Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard – to win the looming election – many voters who liked Rudd and voted him in, felt they had been robbed. In the interests of honesty, I have to say that I’m one of them. Whatever the constitution may say, the Prime Minister who leads his [or her] party into an election is seen by the electorate as having their vote. Ousting that leader may be legal, but it takes something fundamental away from voters. And it undermines the concept of 1 person, 1 vote. Of course that concept has been undermined in a great many other ways, but this post is about the machinations within parties.
Personality politics is not a good thing, in my humble opinion, but once a political party is voted in because of the popularity of its chosen ‘face’, that face should remain until voted out in the next election. The only exception to that is if the ‘face’ commits an actual crime. In the wake of all this political turmoil, both major parties have created rules of their own that prohibit the sacking of a sitting Prime Minister. It should be noted, however, that these new rules apply only to the party concerned. The constitution has not been amended.
Constitution aside, I believe that having a revolving door of Prime Minsters for the sake of political expediency – i.e. just to get re-elected – is cynical and undermines democracy. More importantly, it raises the perception of popularity above the facts of policy.
Sadly, this seems to be the way Western democracy is headed. I hope I don’t live to see democracy wither and die completely.
Meeks
October 29th, 2019 at 4:15 pm
I do think democracy is in is Twilight years. It is a concern, but inevitable if the current breed of politicians doesn’t change.
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October 29th, 2019 at 10:15 pm
I think it goes beyond politicians. They try it on, simply because they can, but it’s the general public that let’s them get away with it.
I’m not excusing the politicians, but they don’t act in a vacuum.
I want democracy to survive, but I believe the practice of it has to change.
Nope, not holding me breath. 😦
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October 30th, 2019 at 8:08 am
Agree! But perhaps you might also include the role of the media in influencing a naive public.
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October 30th, 2019 at 11:11 am
Gah, yes. Thanks for reminding me. I used to assume that reputable news media would provide all the info I need. Not so. Even the ABC filters out a lot of valuable info. These days I spend a lot of time on Twitter. I also spend hours fact checking. Trust has been lost. Probably a good thing.
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October 30th, 2019 at 2:45 pm
A good thing that trust is lost?
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October 30th, 2019 at 10:29 pm
In a strange sort of way, yes. When you trust a news outlet, you tend to accept their version of news without question. I think we’re all better off questioning everything rather than questioning nothing.
That said, you ultimately have to trust some thing or someone, but still, getting more than one version of an event is wise, imho.
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October 30th, 2019 at 11:05 pm
Yes, you are so right. Read across all viewpoints and make your own decision. Be critical and analyse them all for inconsistencies. Sometimes the most valuable lessons come from reading an opinion that is diametrically opposed to your own.
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October 30th, 2019 at 11:41 pm
Yes. We all get set in our ways, especially ways of looking at the world, so it’s not easy to make that shift of perception. But it’s worth the effort. 🙂
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October 31st, 2019 at 8:21 am
I agree but it is educational and broadens our experience to be “well read” in terms of different viewpoints but it is equally nice to come across someone with the same point of view. Comforting in a way that you are on the right track.
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October 31st, 2019 at 9:05 am
Yes! I think we all subconsciously look for people ‘like us’, which is why the whole bubble phenomenon is so powerful. We validate each other. The thing I’ve discovered though is that people I’ve initially disliked for whatever reason, can turn into ‘like us’ if I give them the benefit of the doubt. Not always, but enough times to make the effort worthwhile.
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October 31st, 2019 at 10:31 am
That is true. If we change our own attitude towards them, they become human! Lol. I read somewhere that the quickest way to change someone else is to change yourself. I do believe that to be true. We assign the meaning to behaviours, and many times we get it wrong. But people and their personalities or quirky ways aren’t always set in stone. I often chat about these kinds of things on a Sunday post. There has been some great discussions in recent times. Another blogger, Northern Dragon has some interesting commentary on bloggers and their followers/readers. It makes sense that their views are reinforced many times because they are only drawn to and therefore read those views that are comparable and complementary.
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October 31st, 2019 at 10:52 pm
I’ll have to check some of those posts out. I agree re the shared interests/views. I’m interested in a lot of things so I tend to get a wonderfully diverse mix of people visiting my blog. And yet…they also happen to be articulate, thoughtful people, one and all.
lol – maybe the trolls find my posts boring. 😀
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September 17th, 2019 at 7:38 am
The trouble with any ‘ocracy’ is that once the population increases beyond a certain limit they cease to work.
We’re still a tribal/pack species and although there’s some who transcend that limitation, (usually the revolutionaries who set off the next ‘ocracy’) once we see our ‘tribe’ growing beyond our individual ability to engage with it in any meaningful way, we withdraw our ‘tribe boundary’ accordingly.
Our modern world is so stuffed with these ‘tribes’, that we’re in a constant state of, perhaps not fear, but anxiety, about how we can negotiate a path through them. Which ones do we engage with and which ones we leave on the table, etc.
It’s far easier, (in the short-term anyway) to simply ‘close our borders’ and end up with the scenarios that are plaguing us, worldwide.
If, as a species, we manage to physically survive the next century, I suspect new ‘ocracies’ (or revamped old ones) will be raised up and the cycle will start again.
I do have hope that at some point we’ll have some sort of ‘racial awakening’ and get our shit together, but I also think it’s a long way away from where we are now.
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September 17th, 2019 at 8:22 am
I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right. It’s playing out in the real world AND in the digital world. The only difference is that here in cyber space, the boundaries are created by our own, personal likes and dislikes.
Maybe, like ‘countries’, social media bubbles are inevitable because we are so tribal. That ape brain just won’t let up. 😦
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September 16th, 2019 at 6:52 am
Hello Meeka. It seems some people only want democracy so they can achieve power. If they have to choose between power and democracy they will choose power and end democracy. That is what we are facing here in the US. The republicans can not keep power by any democratic means, so they are doing all they can to subvert democracy to keep their power. They would prefer a one party rule like China as long as it is their party ruling. Hugs
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September 16th, 2019 at 9:17 am
Hi Scottie. Yeah, it seems as if the lines between forms of government are becoming very blurred. And in all our countries, roughly half of all people don’t care. That’s what scares me the most. So many people assume that they’ll continue to get the best that democracy can offer, even after democracy is dead and buried.
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September 16th, 2019 at 6:45 am
Many of the “checks and balances” built into the American system have been undermined in the last few years. It started when the Republicans had big gains in the Senate and Congress while Obama was president and it has accelerated during Trump’s first few years.
The Senate—historically described as a “deliberative body” with Senators working across party lines to hammer out details of legislation—has become a stone wall preventing anything from happening. They don’t even vote on the legislation that is passed in Congress. Some of these prohibitive strategies go back to the origins of the country and the founding fathers’ fear of “mob rule.” The structure of three co-equal branches of government only works if everyone plays their role.
Right now, they are not. The Senate Majority leader—a particularly recalcitrant Republican from Kentucky—controls the agenda in the Senate and he won’t bring a vote unless he is assured by the president that there won’t be a presidential veto. The president changes his mind five times a day about anything and everything so… it’s a huge mess.
Just the other night, I tried to explain this to a Dutch friend and he just threw up his hands and said, “That’s not fair.”
I hope the Australians DON’T follow in our crazy footsteps.
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September 16th, 2019 at 9:24 am
It seems as if there’s been a perfect storm of events leading to a worst case scenario that no one thought possible, certainly not those who framed the original constitution.
Pure happenstance? Or a deliberate strategy?
Part of me leans towards the conspiracy theorists, but another part of me knows that random chaos feed on itself. Let’s hope that once this is all over, the structures will be tightened to make a repeat performance less likely.
Of course, that assumes that climate change gives us all time enough to get our houses in order before it hits full strength.
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September 15th, 2019 at 7:24 pm
A lot of Western democracies do seem to be heading that way.
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September 15th, 2019 at 10:03 pm
I fear we’ve taken democracy for granted.
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September 15th, 2019 at 10:21 pm
It has been easy to, over the last 50 years or so. In a way it’s a compliment to the systems in place, but now we are seeing their weaknesses.
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September 16th, 2019 at 9:28 am
Yup. Although to be honest, we’re not talking true democracy here, we’re talking representational democracy only. The fiction writer in me imagines a future where we’ll have a system of direct, or almost direct, democracy thanks to the digital technology we develop. The tech isn’t there yet, but I have high hopes for blockchain. Just hope I’m still around to see it.
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September 16th, 2019 at 4:19 pm
Interesting. I’ve probably been living under a rock, but this is the first I’ve heard of Blockchain. The principle sounds simple and fairly secure, although even I can see not foolproof. I’m sure we’ll all hear more about it.
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September 17th, 2019 at 8:26 am
lol – I’m only a year or so out from under my own rock Mick so don’t feel bad!
I think blockchain is still a way off, but the possibilities for ‘distributed processing’ are very exciting. By distributed read decentralised. Peer-to-peer does it already [in terms of data sharing] but that sharing is not exactly ‘safe’. I certainly wouldn’t entrust my money to it.
We’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂
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September 17th, 2019 at 5:27 pm
We will, yes. Thanks.
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September 17th, 2019 at 8:04 pm
😀
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September 15th, 2019 at 5:07 pm
Hello my friend! Thank you so much for the mention! Sigh. Of late, I have come to believe that we are at a turning point … not just my country or yours, not just the UK or EU, but the entire industrialized world. I could trace the roots, but that’s a topic for another day. Suffice it to say that there is a domino effect in place, and what is happening in western democracies today, what is known as the ‘populist movement’, started back several decades ago with the Arab Spring. It’s easy enough to say, “oh, well, this too shall pass. Once we get rid of Trump. Once we get through Brexit. Once we get Morrison out …” but my thinking is that the problem lies much deeper than any of the men in office who are only doing the bidding of their faithul lemmings. Until recently, I thought this was a temporary thing … a blip on the radar that would soon enough pass. I’m convinced, now, that it isn’t going to resolve itself that easily. And, the truth of the matter is that if all 192 nations on this planet don’t pull together, put their petty differences aside and work together, making many and huge sacrifices in order to address the ravages of climate change, in another hundred years, the politics will be the least of our worries. And now that I’ve cheered you with my views … HUGS, my dear friend! ❤
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September 15th, 2019 at 10:10 pm
Gee thanks, Jill. Was just about to go to bed. Now I’ll have nightmares all night!
Just kidding. I thought it would be temporary too, but there’s a malaise driving all this. I can’t quit eput my finger on it, but something’s festering. And yes, with climate change becoming more critical every day, I keep waiting for the insanity to end and for us to pull together, but we don’t.
What a world we’releaving for our kids.
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September 16th, 2019 at 10:37 am
Awwww … sorry I wrecked your night’s sleep … on the bright side, you had some extra reading time! What a world, indeed … sigh.
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September 17th, 2019 at 8:28 am
Yeah. It /feels/ as if the whole world is in turmoil now. I’m sure my parents’ generation felt the same, but I remember my childhood as being peaceful and boring. Wouldn’t mind a bit of boring right now.
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September 17th, 2019 at 3:34 pm
I think the difference between our parents’ generation and ours is that the threat then was external, and it pulled the people of our countries together. Today, the threat is from within, and rather than pull us together, it is dividing us. Just my take on it.
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September 17th, 2019 at 8:09 pm
I think you may be right. It’s almost a trope in sci-fi that the only way to unite the world is to send in some big, bad aliens to fight. Doesn’t say much about us, does it?
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September 18th, 2019 at 2:40 pm
Many years ago, when I was in grad school working on my MA in Political Science, I worked as a research assistant for a professor who was writing a paper, the premise of which was that the solution to internal conflict is external conflict. Countries have even used external threats, whether real or not, to bring about domestic peace. Is this what Trump was hoping to do by his fear-mongering about Muslims and Latinos? If so, it didn’t work, for the nation is more divided now than ever.
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September 18th, 2019 at 10:36 pm
It’s cynical, but true. War is good for business /and/ the incumbent government. But I don’t think fear is enough. History shows that only an actual war unites the folks at home. That thought keeps me awake at night. 😦
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September 19th, 2019 at 3:16 am
Yes, that’s true also … and it has been my fear since Trump was elected, for he’s literally got no bloody sense!
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September 19th, 2019 at 7:06 am
I suspect he sees everything and everyone as toys for him to play with. 😦
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September 19th, 2019 at 4:22 pm
Yep. We are naught but pawns for him to use or discard as he sees fit. Sigh.
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September 19th, 2019 at 7:24 pm
😦
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September 15th, 2019 at 3:11 pm
I’m going to resist the temptation to jump on my soapbox because you have made sufficient case. At its best politics is about policies and people. These days at its worst its about profit and personalities. Enough said.
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September 15th, 2019 at 3:59 pm
Yup. And we all know exactly which end of the scale we’re at in 2019. 😦
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September 15th, 2019 at 12:23 pm
A sad state of affairs…Fortunately, many from the younger generations are speaking up and acting on their convictions… Hope is alive!
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September 15th, 2019 at 4:00 pm
-hugs- Yes, the younger generations are what give me hope too. Fingers crossed they get their voting block up and running in time to save our future.
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September 15th, 2019 at 10:55 am
Personally, I think there are too many lawyers in government. Need more people with callouses on their hands, knees, etc. Those from the trenches, not the moneyed background who’ve never struggled to find a dollar for a tin of soup.
Or is that just me showing my teeth?
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September 15th, 2019 at 4:01 pm
Hah! Yes. It seems that almost every young[er] back bencher started out as a lawyer, or a staffer. Professional politicians all. I doubt any of them would know what a callous is.
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