democracy

[buttsie]

Originally Posted by haroldeye

The problem is that voters are neither wise nor sensible. They can be swayed by all sorts of nonsense.

The case in point that proves this

Where compulsory voting is in you'll find the scum looking for votes in Nursing homes
Mentally fragile folks who havent a clue about the outside world
Thats all part of the screwed up democratic process

Make it non-compulsory and you get inundated with phone message bullshit
Live and learn - the answering machine is your friend - because pollsters hate it


I tell every politician that visits that i'm apart of the festival of life


Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson - The Festival Of Life - Audio only (X rated)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAvpJ2tQNw4

[Nobody1]

In the assessment of democracy as a social system, the influence of the underlying economic system plays a important role.

So in my opinion the question should be : Is there a democracy without capitalism? And the consequent question would be : How would that look like?

[steve40]

if there was a true democracy, then i believe we would have more of a say in politics and how our taxes are used and how much politicians are entitled to and how much we borrow and how much we give away and how many conflicts we get dragged into be a totally miss guided government.

[haroldeye]

Originally Posted by Estreeter

Aussie are ya

No, I thought about going there once but I don't have a criminal record.

Thinking about it I have a copy of 'Blockbuster' by Sweet and that's fairly criminal.

[mizlaplan]

Democracy doesn't exist.
It never has.
Don't believe me?
I'll use the UK as an example.
When was the last time you saw every single person of voting age in Britain turn up at the Houses of Parliament to vote on an issue.
It's never happened.
30-40 million chaps and chapesses just won't fit into the building and in a Democracy they'd have to on a regular basis.
The same as every other "Democracy".
Just work on the theory that Democracy is a flawed, bastardised form of Republicanism and is a helluva lot better that the numerous awful alternatives.

[RjG57]

If we could figure out how to have a democracy without the greed of capitalism we would have an almost perfect system.

[eugene10]

Democracy is a transitional government leading the way to Socialism aka Communism.

The only free government is a Constitutional Republic, what the USA was given by the founders of the US Constitution and BOR's.

True Constitutional Republic was destroyed piece by piece with most obvious destruction was during what the north called the civil war, southerners rightfully refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression.

States writes where destroyed after that war swinging the gates open for federal overbearing control.

Money/Power that's what it's always about.

Anyone believing the freeing of African slaves is what it was about is very naive.

700.000 Americans killed for Africans freedom ... dream on.

It would have been less expensive to buy their freedom.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by eugene10

Democracy is a transitional government leading the way to Socialism aka Communism.

The only free government is a Constitutional Republic, what the USA was given by the founders of the US Constitution and BOR's.

True Constitutional Republic was destroyed piece by piece with most obvious destruction was during what the north called the civil war, southerners rightfully refer to it as the War of Northern Aggression.

States writes where destroyed after that war swinging the gates open for federal overbearing control.

Money/Power that's what it's always about.

Anyone believing the freeing of African slaves is what it was about is very naive.

700.000 Americans killed for Africans freedom ... dream on.

It would have been less expensive to buy their freedom.

Your knowledge of the American Civil War is incomplete.

• It was indeed about states rights, including the rights of northern states to maintain the freedom of their black citizens against southern attempts to introduce a federal slave code and the compulsory return of runaway slaves.
• The slave trade (as opposed to slavery itself) was greatly reduced after the Napoleonic Wars because Britain unilaterally outlawed it and used her navy to make that stick, in the teeth of "states rights". So the vast majority of slaves in the USA were not "Africans" as you put it, but born in the USA and, had they not been held in slavery, US citizens. The war was fought in no small part to address the fact thar US citizens were being held in a state of slavery.
• If the southern states had been at all willing to negotiate, a peaceful emancipation process would inevitably have involved buying the freedom of the slaves. That is how it was done in the British Empire. But as soon as Lincoln was elected, the CSA states began to break away and there was never a possibility of a peaceful compromise.

Incidentally I disagree with your proposition that constitutional government is more important than democracy as a safeguard of freedom. It did nothing to safeguard the freedom of black US citizens in southern states in the first half of the 20th Century. Britain has no constitution and has democracy and freedom. Neither has democracy served as a stepping stone to socialism or communism here.

[knobby109]

Originally Posted by eugene10

Democracy is a transitional government leading the way to Socialism aka Communism.
.

Socialism is when people look after each other and contribute to the common good.That's how you have schools, roads, police and a fire service , the military and in civilised countries, health care.
Like many things it's a good servant but a bad master. At its best it allows people to live fulfilled and secure lives.

Communism isn't the same thing at all.It is when the state owns the means of production and distribution.

[nckgmd]

They should rename it Duocracy... Because any one tries to set up a new party that would challenge the two majority parties both parties will come together and attack... Their friends in the media will help them too. If Australia had a true Democracy their should be four parties with a chance. The only problem is with that you would get situation like in Italy where they have coalitions that fail so often there's an election almost every year. From what I understand Lenin's plan was to have a Communist state that had 4 communist parties. Every four years you would vote for one and that one would rule for a term... But greedy people killed him before he could get this into law... One thing Australia has it right, there should be compulsory voting...