[Election-Methods] Partisan Politics

[Fred Gohlke]

Good Afternoon, Juho

When you say, about changing the political system, that "... the party 
behaviour and rules of behaviour should be improved.", I agree.  The 
difficulty is, in America, the parties write the rules for their own 
behavior.  Throughout my 79 years on this earth, the people have sought 
reform innumerable times.  A little over a year ago, in my state, the 
legislature passed a bill to prevent a certain type of corruption. 
Within a month, someone found (and published) a memo written by one of 
the lawyers who drafted the law.  It described the loopholes in the law 
and how our politicians could take advantage of them.  As long as those 
with political power write the rules for their own behaviour, change is 
unlikely.

re: "Parties need not be tyrants and nests of evil but just free 
groupings of people with similar opinions."

I agree.  As I said earlier, "Partisanship is a vital part of society 
... provided it is always a voice and never a power.  The danger is not 
in partisanship, it is in allowing partisans to control government."

Your citation of party-controlled representatives is "Right On!".  It's 
true that all systems are targets for corruption, but the ease with 
which it can be done varies considerably.  While static systems are 
relatively easy to corrupt (it's the apples in the barrel that rot), it 
is much more difficult to corrupt dynamic systems where candidates are 
subject to careful examination during each election cycle.  I addressed 
the problems you mentioned in "Selecting Leaders From The People" on 
February 4th.  That outline does exactly what you suggest:  It lets the 
voters seek the problems ... and the solutions for them.

Like you, Thomas Jefferson warned us "The price of freedom is eternal 
vigilance."  But, as we've seen over the past 200-odd years, vigilance 
without the means to forestall abuses is futile.  It is only by 
carefully examining every candidate during every election that we can 
detect and eliminate unprincipled people.

re: "We have taken many steps from the pure 'laws of jungle' model but 
certainly also further improving steps are possible."

You're right.  But it is more difficult than it appears.  We've been 
told so many times through so many years that our political system is 
the best in the world, some of us can't admit it is a cesspool of 
corruption, funded by special interests that buy the laws we endure.  If 
we are to improve it, we must study the disease while we do our best to 
alleviate the symptoms.

re: "Thorough understanding of the dynamics of the political system is 
needed to make its operation better."

That is precisely the point I sought to make in my comments.  They are 
the background which led to, "Selecting Leaders From The People".  Can 
we pursue this line of inquiry?

Fred