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Author Topic:   Introduction to the Federalists Party - Kuresu
anglagard
Member (Idle past 836 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 16 of 35 (347479)
09-08-2006 2:20 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by AdminAsgara
09-06-2006 10:48 PM


A Few Points Concerning Essay
Good luck in trying to start a new political party in the USA. Everything is rigged against you. Having actively worked for a third party for a few years, I know from where I speak.
Back in the mid 80s, during the time I was in the US Army, some coke-snorting basketball player died on the court due to cardiac arrest, Len Bias was his name I believe. As a result, Congress went into action to pass the Drug Control Act in 1986 which allowed asset forfiture upon suspicion rather than after conviction. The act was passed with bipartisan support without any real debate (just like the more recent Patriot Act).
As a result, property could be siezed from anyone "suspected" of drug involvement. The act changed the entire judical concept of presumption of innocent until proven guilty on its head. Now people were guilty and had to prove innocence to recover such seized assets, if they could afford the time and money required. Needless to say, the act resulted in massive police corruption, and continues to do so to this very day. Just say the magic word, drugs, and a citizen loses the right to property.
Upon leaving the army in 1987, I saw the effects of this corrupt legislation upon the populace. Yet no one from either major political party dared criticize the act lest they be open to the accusation of "being soft on drugs." It was a return to the McCarthyism I had only read about.
This was not the same nation I had sworn to defend with my life three years earlier.
Because I felt that both major parties had betrayed the principle of innocent until proven guilty and the fourth and fifth amendments to the Bill of Rights, I sought to actively fight for any movement that would restore the rights of citizens to their former state.
Since I was a fiscal conservative and social liberal, I found the best fit was with the Libertarian Party.
I soon became involved with activists within the party and actively campaigned for their elections. Third parties must gain a number of signatures to appear on the ballot and so I went trooping around to gain such signatures. I soon found that even under the best of circumstances, a small majority of voters do not want to place anyone from a third party on a ballot as they are against providing the voters the choice.
So much for public support for democracy.
After a few years, I got married, my wife became pregnant, and I no longer had the time to remain politically active. I passed my position of county chair of the party to someone else, who after a month of activism, stopped, which acted to undo all my hard work of the previous three years. Around this time, I became somewhat disenchanted with the party as well when someone who ran for the state senate received one vote in a county that had hundreds of supporters. I asked him what he planned to do about this clear example of election fraud and he replied "nothing, things have always been that way."
{some dozen years later the county clerk got 10 years for a 20-year history of election fraud, as in ballot-box stuffing}
So much for democracy. I felt that as long as the party couldn't even fight against election corruption, they would be completely ineffective at fighting for anything else.
I also came to realize that Libertarianism was a utopian political philosophy and would never be effective as a political party because they could not compromise on their beliefs. However I do think they have a role in at least providing a choice other than having to vote for one of two amoral crooks.
So the point I wanted to make here was that it is very difficult to get the majority of voters to stop supporting indebtedness, mudslinging, fiscal waste, or the gradual loss of liberty.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by AdminAsgara, posted 09-06-2006 10:48 PM AdminAsgara has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 18 by kuresu, posted 09-08-2006 2:36 AM anglagard has not replied

  
anglagard
Member (Idle past 836 days)
Posts: 2339
From: Socorro, New Mexico USA
Joined: 03-18-2006


Message 17 of 35 (347481)
09-08-2006 2:28 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by AdminAsgara
09-06-2006 10:48 PM


Mudslinging as Nothing New
Mudslinging in American politics is nothing new, in fact many historians would say it was worse at the beginning of the nation before the laws against libel and slander were fully worked out against a press that was unfettered by any respect for truth.
Sometimes such mudslinging even resulted in death, ask the guy on the $10 bill.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by AdminAsgara, posted 09-06-2006 10:48 PM AdminAsgara has not replied

  
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