It was the opening sentence that bothered me.
PLEASE, Dick Cheney, keep talking!I found that to be a little too partisan.
The rest of the OpEd tells us that Former VP Cheney lives in his own little bubble about what is America and what is the Republican Party.
I know that there are Republicans out there who like Mr Cheney. I am not one of them. In fact, I would like him to follow the example of former Vice President Dan Quayle and just disappear from sight (although Wikipedia does say that Mr Quayle writes a column, but then he is a former newspaper man, like his successor, Al Gore). Mr Gore made it about 18 months before he jumped in.
But, my point is, I expect better of Mr Jackson. We are in a crisis here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that is exacerbated by the fact that we are a one party state and have been for years. Don't let William Weld as Governor fool you. Mr Jackson's column continues the common assumption (wink-wink) that we are all just good Democrats here in Massachusetts. We aren't and it is bad for the Commonwealth to encourage that kind of thinking.
Just to help us think through this thing, name your favorite "one-party" nation and then place it on your list of all nations in order of quality and democracy. Then post it to the comments. (If you are having a hard time posting to the comments, call me.)
Thanks
Regards — Cliff
PS: Do you realize, dear reader, that you and I are the only people in the whole United States who do not have their own pages in Wikipedia?
I was going to link to a wikipedia page under my name as there is an competitive/Olympic runner named Kathryn Krieger. However, she seems not to be famous enough for wikipedia, either.
ReplyDeleteAh, Kathryn
ReplyDeleteYou can create a page for her in Wikipedia. It is our encyclopedia and we get to put in the data and update it. Go for it!
Regards — Cliff
We've had a one party state for decades--the party of massive deficits and big government. Or put another way--if all we have is Coke and Pepsi in the soda aisle, do we really have a choice?
ReplyDeleteJoining and/or supporting one party to oppose the other is exactly what's gotten us into this mess--everybody jumping to one corner or the other with no one left in the middle to think for themselves. Real progress is only made when the entrenched power brokers are thrown out of office on ALL sides. (Think about it--Lincoln's Republicans were in existence barely five years before he was elected).
As for the real strength of the American system--it's because it's a NO PARTY system. Candidates declare their own party affiliation, and can switch as they please. (Right, Mr. Specter?) Voters vote for those individuals, not their parties. Each candidate runs their own campaign(s), manages their own finances, and decides their own policy and platform as they please.
Our current weakness is that almost all our elected individuals are ceding their power to their parties, and it's turning out to be killing us. Whenever in our history have we had parties funding opposition to so many individual candidates? Is this not the clearest possible warning that we are in serious, serious trouble???
When a party deigns to speak for us, and uses the proxy votes and financial resources of millions of unwitting dupes in that process, it becomes the tyrant, and we need to remember our patriotism and fight that tyranny, or we will all be lost.