The official blog of the Libertarian Party
December 18, 2006
Redpath Featured on HotSoup
LNC Chariman Billiam Redpath is currently featured on the front page at HotSoup.com. Here's the question raised: "Is America's two-party system broken?"
I'll provide a snippet from the answers of each of the panelists.
GOP apologist Mary Matalin exposes her obvious prejudice:
It's one of those questions posed by people who have never lived or worked in a country that had a multi-party system, which oftentimes collapses into chaos, calamity, and cacophony, and you can't make any progress whatsoever. It spins its wheels in motion, as opposed to progress.
Former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry offers some hope:
I think what we need is a new politics of the center that with the right kind of charismatic candidate could lead to the development of a third party. I think that may happen as we look ahead to 2008. So the big question in American politics now - is it [the American political party system] binary or is it tripartite?
Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee seems to have forgotten about how the Ds and the Rs worked together to give us the Patriot Act, the War and Iraq, and numerous other assaults on our freedom:
You have parties that essentially don't work together to solve problems, and I think people in America are not so much looking for an ideological government, they're looking for a problem-solving government.
White House correspondent Mike Allen more or less admits that he ignores candidates who don't have an R or a D attached to their name:
One of the ways that you're able to sort of keep things down the middle is that you spend as much time talking to the opposition as you do talking to your candidate. So if I'm, for instance, covering President Bush in 2004 and I have the privilege to be on Air Force One covering his events, I'll also talk during the day to the Kerry campaign on my cell phone, read their e-mails as they come through to our Treos or Blackberrys or the other little devices that we carry. So at the end of the day, if you're covering a candidate, you know the best argument for what they're saying because you hear their events, talk to the staff members who love and appreciate them, and you know any holes there might be in that argument because you're doing the research yourself, often with the aid of the other side. So what we try to do is bring those together and give people the complete package.
LNC Chairman William Redpath say's the two party system is "absolutely broken":
Political scientists will tell you that the almost natural result of that is two dominant parties running for the center, trying to offend as few people as possible, and that's what gives us situations where everybody avoids the issues when they're running for office, situations where you have groupthink to a certain extent in legislatures, such as the resounding vote in allowing President Bush to take us to war in Iraq.
Posted by Stephen Gordon at December 18, 2006 12:24 PM
Reader Comments:
The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation
Presents a debate:
Medical Marijuana:
Should the sick be able to smoke?
Featuring
Bob Barr
Former Congressman
21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union
V.
Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance
Moderator
James E. Fleming
Professor at Fordham Law, author of Securing Constitutional Democracy
Co-Sponsors: Fordham Law Federalist Society & American Constitution Society
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
Fordham Law School
http://thesmithfamilyfoundation.org/event.cfm
I hope the mp3 of that debate will be available online, or that CSPAN will have cameras there. I'd love to see or hear it, but I'll be nowhere near the venue at the appointed day and time.
I would have to agree with Redpath that the problem is largely based on single-member districts and the "first-past-the-post" elections.
One alternative to single-member districts would have each States number of representives being up for grabs across the entire state (the state an entire multi-member district), rather than single-member districts. Wyoming had multi-member districts in its state government until a court ruling said otherwise.
There are numerous alternatives which could be discussed, and should be at the least, talked about.
I think we all know what the external and internal issues that the LP faces are, we can't change human nature and we are to small to significantly change external institutions, so the focus should remain on internal reforms that allow us to grow influencial enough to push for institutional changes that will provide a more even playing field for our candidates in the future. In other words, until we are ready to play in the big leagues, the debate about voting systems is largely rhetorical.
Please tell me that Barr has lost his drug warrior mindset of the past. If not, get rid of him.
I second that Amen. Ending the drug war has so many benefits, from the immense cost to personal freedom and responsibility.
I am definitely not one of those purists. Witness my disagreement with the majority of the party on foreign affairs. However, I believe the main thing that holds the party together is a belief in personal responsibility and that a person can live their life however they want as long as it doesn't infringe upon another's rights.
All of the things that (fallacious) studies say drugs do that hurt another person there are already laws against (theft, for instance).
Many users today don't do any of those things and if the price was lowered and availability was through legitimate businesses instead of criminal thugs even fewer would have to resort to those things.
A person in a leadership position should follow one of the most important and long-standing party planks. If people who don't believe in the basic principles are allowed to lead us we become like the Reps and Dems.
A party that stands for nothing other than electoral victory. I was a part of a party that achieved electoral success (the Republicans in the 90's and first part of this decade). I joined the Libertarians because they always abandoned the principles I agreed with. What good to vote for someone who will do the same thing as the opposition just so the pary appelation next to their name looks better?
I hope Bob Barr comes around to the correct thinking on this issue.
| 
The Donald & Paula Smith Family Foundation
Presents a debate:
Medical Marijuana:
Should the sick be able to smoke?
Featuring
Bob Barr
Former Congressman
21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union
V.
Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance
Moderator
James E. Fleming
Professor at Fordham Law, author of Securing Constitutional Democracy
Co-Sponsors: Fordham Law Federalist Society & American Constitution Society
Thursday, January 18th, 2007
Fordham Law School
Posted by: LPiberty at December 18, 2006 01:59 PMhttp://thesmithfamilyfoundation.org/event.cfm