It's Moscow on the Potomac. Civil war is imminent.

[Dan T 8]

Exactly my point. If Cheney won't endorse a Paul candidacy, he obviously is not in tune with the true message of present day conservativism and deserves to be booted out of the GOP. Never mind his bona fide credentials in the Bush era, it's all "what have you done for me lately?". Pretty much the only active member of the GOP who is accepted in tea party circles without suspicion of RINOism is Sarah Palin. The RINO-label is a plot from without to coopt the entire party and toss out all credentialed Republicans who don't swear allegiance to the wacko creed.

I refer all people discussing this idea to my labels thread. I for one am conservative on a great many things like national security, american exceptionalism, and keeping government small. But I abhor the republican party because of their ambition to christianise the country, and some of them even the planet. Libertarians are not much better. I think it would move a step closer back to our founding pricipals if we disbanded all political parties.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I think it would move a step closer back to our founding pricipals if we disbanded all political parties.

You could disband them, but they'd just reappear. People form coalitions, it's what we do. We do it in grade school, we do it in college, we do it at work, at parties... and heck I was on a jury once and they even form on jury panels.

[Dan T 8]

You could disband them, but they'd just reappear. People form coalitions, it's what we do. We do it in grade school, we do it in college, we do it at work, at parties... and heck I was on a jury once and they even form on jury panels.

if any resident isrealis could please jump in on this but i believe the parties in isreal are much more fluid and it is common for people to jump from party to party to party depending on the pressing issue of the day. i think this is a much more intelligent implimentation if it would indeed be impossible to abolish them. again i refer you all to my labels thread.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I don't know much about Israel so can not comment. I will tell you that in India's democracy people switch parties all the time. The reason it works there is because MP's elect the head of state. People vote for MP's and after being voted in MP's are free to switch parties and/or form coalitions with whoever offers them (or, more rarely, their constituents) the sweetest deal. It's a corrupt and chaotic system. Way too volatile.

Also, I believe in some parts of Europe they don't have the "winner takes all" elections we have here. So if the Green Party got 5% of the vote, they'd get 5% proportional representation in the legislature. In America, whoever gets 50%+1 gets it all. This makes it much more difficult for >2 parties to be competitive. The upside is that the political system is mroe stable and less volatile.

[luckytxn 2,263]

If any of you thin Sarah Palin is the answer then we are doomed. She is as Rino as they come and just mouthing what the tea partiers want to hear.

Rand Paul is a good man and it will be nice to see him in the Senate.

[ScratchIt 12]

This is so wrong in so many ways...Firstly, what is this propaganda doing in VisaJourney? I hope the moderators remove it soon, because it is filled with stupidity and hate. Secondly, when was the last time you or this person being quoted was in Moscow and has even the faintest idea what it means to be Russian...Thirdly, please look up the definition of treason and tell us what you have to report once you learn its true meaning...I could go on and on, but it would be pointless because hopefully this entire posting will soon be remove because it will make everyone more stupid for having read it. I can just feel my brain cells wasting away after suffering through the whole post...but I did it so that others would not have to suffer through it too. )

Dude - welcome to VJ! You're preachin' to the choir. What should be a forum centered on relevent immigration issues has, over the years, become a ridiculous clearinghouse for a variety of nut cases. Now it is most useful as a source of entertainment. Still there is plenty of good info here. As for the moderators, I doubt you could find a forum that has had its mods more thrashed and trashed than this one. There have been good ones and bad ones. I do not envy them at all.

[ScratchIt 12]

Never mind his bona fide credentials in the Bush era...

Stop it oh please stop somebody get me some oxygen I can't breath, oxygen, please get me some oxygen!!!

[Kevin and 10]

If any of you thin Sarah Palin is the answer then we are doomed. She is as Rino as they come Neo-Con and just mouthing what the tea partiers want to hear.

Rand Paul is a good man and it will be nice to see him in the Senate.

Fixxored

And unfortunately the Tea Party movement has been taken over by the Neo-Cons.

[Danno 1,228]

If any of you thin Sarah Palin is the answer then we are doomed. She is as Rino as they come and just mouthing what the tea partiers want to hear.

Rand Paul is a good man and it will be nice to see him in the Senate.

I won't be so hard on Sarah Palin as you are but I will say two things on that note.

1. The problem with Palin is her lack of national record to judge her on, while I might vote for her in a matchup with your generic Lefty, I would prefer she took a roll where she has to make tough votes to see where she really stands.

2. The Popularity of palin is a huge indicator of just how hungry a large percentage (I would say majority) of Americans are for a personality which is perceived as attractive, traditional conservative and knowledgeable.... palin covers at least two of those bases.

Find a candidate which covers 3 or 4 and Liberals will be throwing themselves off roof-tops.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

1. The problem with Palin is her lack of national record to judge her on ...

That is in part because she quit as Governor of Alaska so early.

But regardless, she was Governor for a while. Here's her record.

When the former vice presidential candidate resigned as governor of Alaska in the summer of 2009, she left the state with a 70 percent debt-to-GDP ratio -- the highest state debt burden in the United States.

...

Alaska has a debt burden similar to "that of Jordan and ... Canada, and a higher ratio than Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, India, the Philippines or Uruguay."

By comparison, crisis-stricken California has a debt ratio of less than 40 percent. All the more confounding about Alaska's debt is the fact that it is an oil-producing region with a small population to share in that wealth. Oil-rich Alberta, Canada, for example, collects no sales tax and still managed to retire its debt entirely in 2004.

Edited April 2, 2010 by w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r

[The_Dude 1,142]

I won't be so hard on Sarah Palin as you are but I will say two things on that note.

1. The problem with Palin is her lack of national record to judge her on, while I might vote for her in a matchup with your generic Lefty, I would prefer she took a roll where she has to make tough votes to see where she really stands.

2. The Popularity of palin is a huge indicator of just how hungry a large percentage (I would say majority) of Americans are for a personality which is perceived as attractive, traditional conservative and knowledgeable.... palin covers at least two of those bases.

Find a candidate which covers 3 or 4 and Liberals will be throwing themselves off roof-tops.

Danno, you're so full of sh!t, you don't vote.

[scandal 951]

Stop it oh please stop somebody get me some oxygen I can't breath, oxygen, please get me some oxygen!!!

[scandal 951]

if any resident isrealis could please jump in on this but i believe the parties in isreal are much more fluid and it is common for people to jump from party to party to party depending on the pressing issue of the day. i think this is a much more intelligent implimentation if it would indeed be impossible to abolish them. again i refer you all to my labels thread.

If you really think the Israeli political model is something you'd like to see emulated, all I can say is Wow. Wow Wow Wow.

Watching coalition formation in Israel is sickening. Consider the wheeling and dealing as desirable ministry portfolios are handed out as so much candy to Shas and Aguda so they can fund their slush funds. Consider the Gimlayim party (with the sole issue of representing retirees) which garnered something like 10% of the vote in a recent election as voters were exasperated with the mainstream choices and voted Gimlayim as a protest vote. Israeli politics is a mess, hijacked by the religious parties, with no formal Constitution, and with no stable mainstream parties. The days of Labor/Likud are gone, Kadimah has proven to be a joke, Meretz has siphoned off the strength that a united Labor party would have had, Shas has corrupted the entire process.

I'll take the Democrats and Republicans and their K Street backers any day over the ####### that goes on in Israeli politics.

[Dan T 8]

I don't know much about Israel so can not comment. I will tell you that in India's democracy people switch parties all the time. The reason it works there is because MP's elect the head of state. People vote for MP's and after being voted in MP's are free to switch parties and/or form coalitions with whoever offers them (or, more rarely, their constituents) the sweetest deal. It's a corrupt and chaotic system. Way too volatile.

Also, I believe in some parts of Europe they don't have the "winner takes all" elections we have here. So if the Green Party got 5% of the vote, they'd get 5% proportional representation in the legislature. In America, whoever gets 50%+1 gets it all. This makes it much more difficult for >2 parties to be competitive. The upside is that the political system is mroe stable and less volatile.

i just really dont see an upside to stability when you have to sscrifice a part of yourself to get behind someone you might disagree with on 90% of issues. And just because I dont like dems does not mean I want a repub. The people I hang with in religious circles think im nuts for being so anti-dem but only on the basis that repubs carry with them a sort of christian fascism stigma. At the same time whenever I get on the side of a small government repub its inevitable that the 3G's work their way into the conversation and I just have to role my eyes and walk away and I get an equal ration of ####### from them for not attending any form of abrahamic church but i choose instead to worship in nature on my own terms. Id much rather have a government not function at all than have a party line agenda rammed down my throat because of some perceived mandate that was supposedly issued just because they have a majority in congress. Weve had 2 sucessive presidents now show us the inheirent danger of having a rubber stamp congress supporting their every move because they dont want to get shot in the face on a hunting trip, sent a dead fish in the mail, or threatened by some naked guy in the congressional gym shower.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

i just really dont see an upside to stability ...

Did you read scandal's response?