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2005-03-19 Home Front: Politix

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Posted by Fred 2005-03-19 1:58:03 PM|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 O.K. I think Fred is smarter than Pat, and I kinda like our form of government, whatever it's called. We elected Bush to represent us, not to follow our polls. While I wasn't there, I believe FDR represented our long-term needs when he started supporting Britian in a war no one in America supported at the time. The Germans sunk the USS Reuben James while defending a convoy near Iceland months before Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt coulda been impeached, no?

I am a bit confused by the distinction he's trying to make between a republic and a democracy - maybe we have a representative democracy? I just be a dumb engineer...

Posted by Bobby 2005-03-19 3:13:36 PM|| 2005-03-19 3:13:36 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Pitchfork Pat - why does MSNBC et al continue to push him fwd as a "face of the Republican Party" when he ran on any other ticket that would take him (and finished terribly). Might as well have Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura do a trifecta

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-19 3:19:09 PM|| 2005-03-19 3:19:09 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Put 12 people on an empty island and sooner or later they'll decide on a leader. If they are smart, they will usually elect the smartest guy to run things, but only if this guy does fulfil the expectations. If not, they'll choose another. That's a rather universal thing.

Now if one guy who doesn't have to be the smartest, has a gun and the others have not, the election thing might not work. The guy with the gun might either influence the election, coerce people, bully them into electing him or just skip the whole election thing and tell people that he's da man because he has da gun.
But he better hold on tight to his gun and have a light sleep.
Democracy doesn't mean that the majority makes all the decisions but that it holds the ultimate control over the guys it chooses to run things. Democracy is more than "50,01% decide how things are done". Democracy is a complex system of liberties and rights which are not granted by a sovereign but by the people themselves and cannot be restricted by people whose powers are bestowed unto them by the people for a limited time period.

Now to Iran: It is rather meaningless what polls would show about the opinions of Iranians re nuclear energy, as long as opinions cannot be voiced free of fear or concern AND without the free flow of information.
A point many do miss: Yes Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy if it so choses, but it is under the obligation to let the international community to verify that this program doesn't develop into a weapon's program. Iran has failed in that respect and if it continues to fail in that respect the international community has the right to make sure that no nuclear threat comes from Iran. If this can only be achieved by terminating the WHOLE nuclear program, Iran can only blame itself.
The right is on our side because Iran has signed the non proliferation treaty in order to get nuclear technology from the West. Break the treaty and we'll take the technology away.

By all necessary means, if need to be

Posted by True German Ally 2005-03-19 3:38:23 PM|| 2005-03-19 3:38:23 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Well-said, TGA. Can you e-mail it to someone in Mullah-land?

Posted by Bobby 2005-03-19 3:44:54 PM|| 2005-03-19 3:44:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 Frank G wrote:
Pitchfork Pat - why does MSNBC et al continue to push him fwd as a "face of the Republican Party"

Probably because they think he makes the Republican Party look bad. In much the same way we'd like to push forward, say, Cynthia McKinney as a face of what the Democrat Party has become.

Posted by eLarson 2005-03-19 3:51:55 PM|| [http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2005-03-19 3:51:55 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 eLarson - she isn't?

As for pissy Pat, he can go piss up a rope. I live in Virginia, and have been exposed to his antics for years; color me completely unimpressed.

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2005-03-19 4:03:16 PM|| 2005-03-19 4:03:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Who needs Cynthia? They chose Pelosi all by themselves.

Posted by .com 2005-03-19 4:08:01 PM|| 2005-03-19 4:08:01 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Pat's idea of a "republic" is a form of government in which people who look and think like him run things. He's a fascist, or at least, the closest an actual American can come to the fascistic mind-set - zenophobic, past-worshiping, anti-capitalist, racist, anti-rationalist. He's rather under-cut by the lack of a true blood-and-soil tradition in American politics and thought, which keeps him from true, traditional fascism, but lord knows the man works overtime to make that "Judean-Christian tradition" cover over the ideological gaps.

A republic can be any of a lot of things. I like making the distinction between republics and democracies, because I like precision in my political science, and any jackass with a bullhorn and a crowd can make pretense at being a voice of democracy, or turn an electoral opportunity into "one man, one vote, one time" tyranny. Pat Buchanan *is* one of those jackasses, except that he's latched onto "republic" as his totem, instead.

In the early modern, a republic was any form of sovereignty which wasn't a monarchy or a theocracy. That is, rule by something other than an aristocratic or clerical head-of-state. Venice was a republic, but only a damned fool would look to the Republic of Venice as a model of liberty or virtue.

In short, democracy is an ideal, not a proper form of government.

As for Socrates... I'm tired of conservatives and would-be philosopher-kings whining about Socrates. Fucker was so goddamned virtuous and smart, why the hell didn't he ever do jack for his city-state other than survive Delium? Instead, he nursed a clutch of vipers who attacked the city from within at a moment of weakness in time of war. Fuck Socrates, they should have hanged him, instead of letting him take the easy way out with poison.

Posted by Mitch H. 2005-03-19 5:07:06 PM|| [http://blogfonte.blogspot.com/] 2005-03-19 5:07:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Pat's idea of a "republic" is a form of government in which people who look and think like him run things

and aren't Jooooos. He's never explained his love for Arab despots (not even trying for RealpolitikÂ©) putting him in the Neo-Con/Joooooo hating branch of Rob't Novak, et al

Posted by Frank G 2005-03-19 5:25:00 PM|| 2005-03-19 5:25:00 PM|| Front Page Top

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