cajuninca
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« Reply #15 on: February 20, 2008, 08:20:26 AM » |
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oswald, you give "GE, Murdoch, Viacom, Disney, Time-Warner and the rest" too much credit. I've worked in newsrooms. The publisher is never seen, many (most?) stories come from the bottom up (the reporters), and the edits on their stories going up are minimal. I can't vouch for broadcast newsrooms (I was always in print media), but the whole "those who pay the piper call the tune" thing is bunk. It's always easy to lean toward conspiracy theories, but I'll tell you, the main reason the media is bad in so many ways is because of the quality (lack thereof) of the journalists. And print journalism isn't as good as it used to be because so many of those journalists fashion themselves as the next Tim Russert or Internet flower. Sad ...
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cajuninca
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« Reply #16 on: February 20, 2008, 08:34:22 AM » |
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micfranklin:
- Superdelegates are creations of party, which is an anti-democratic institution the Framers warned us about.
- The rest have nothing to do with democracy:
- The 1st Amendment protects us from the lemming-like media.
- The spying, arrests/imprisonment, torture, justification for going into Iraq, ignoring the people who want out,
and "free speech zones" are the results of public policy. These are the results of the "form" of democracy
we currently live under (party politics).
Yes, "This country has gone so far from being a democracy" but its because of the first bullet. Democracy can happen ...
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OswaldTheOsprey
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« Reply #17 on: February 20, 2008, 09:55:49 AM » |
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oswald, you give "GE, Murdoch, Viacom, Disney, Time-Warner and the rest" too much credit. I've worked in newsrooms. The publisher is never seen, many (most?) stories come from the bottom up (the reporters), and the edits on their stories going up are minimal. I can't vouch for broadcast newsrooms (I was always in print media), but the whole "those who pay the piper call the tune" thing is bunk. It's always easy to lean toward conspiracy theories, but I'll tell you, the main reason the media is bad in so many ways is because of the quality (lack thereof) of the journalists. And print journalism isn't as good as it used to be because so many of those journalists fashion themselves as the next Tim Russert or Internet flower. Sad ...
Where did you work in journalism? Just curious. OswaldTheOsprey |
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Urbi et Orbi
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cajuninca
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« Reply #18 on: February 20, 2008, 09:53:54 PM » |
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Newspaper in Baton Rouge, right down the street from the National champs in college football  |
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OswaldTheOsprey
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« Reply #19 on: February 21, 2008, 02:19:12 AM » |
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Newspaper in Baton Rouge, right down the street from the National champs in college football War Eagle anyway!  OswaldTheOsprey (Proud dad of an Auburn grad) |
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bringbackwigs
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« Reply #20 on: February 21, 2008, 07:44:24 AM » |
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Newspaper in Baton Rouge, right down the street from the National BCS champs in college football Fixed. |
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In religion and politics, people\\\\'s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination. - Mark Twain  |
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OswaldTheOsprey
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« Reply #21 on: February 21, 2008, 08:15:27 AM » |
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Newspaper in Baton Rouge, right down the street from the National BCS champs in college football Fixed. The words fixed and BCS sort of go together. OswaldTheOsprey |
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cajuninca
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« Reply #22 on: February 21, 2008, 08:30:01 AM » |
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Oswald, you are the height of profundity and brevity !!! My wife tells me that most-times I'm a bit long-winded; she is right, of course. But I certainly can recognize fine efficient text.
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OswaldTheOsprey
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« Reply #23 on: February 21, 2008, 09:27:46 AM » |
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Oswald, you are the height of profundity and brevity !!! My wife tells me that most-times I'm a bit long-winded; she is right, of course. But I certainly can recognize fine efficient text.
Thank you! OswaldTheOsprey |
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JFree89
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« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2008, 07:55:39 PM » |
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It's not perfect ... but i still think its a better system than anything else. Perhaps we don't need to change "democracy" but just perfect it.
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OswaldTheOsprey
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« Reply #25 on: February 25, 2008, 07:59:03 PM » |
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It's not perfect ... but i still think its a better system than anything else. Perhaps we don't need to change "democracy" but just perfect it.
Good luck with perfecting it-there will be plenty of opposition from the establishment. OswaldTheOsprey |
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JFree89
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« Reply #26 on: February 25, 2008, 08:05:11 PM » |
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What do you propose we put in democracy's place ?
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cajuninca
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« Reply #27 on: February 26, 2008, 12:29:47 AM » |
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JFree, about halfway through his farewell address, George Washington said: "The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention (sic), which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."
Now I'm not as pessimistic as ole Oswald here, but I'll tell you that ole George was one hellava prophet: can you deny the precise "disorders and miseries" that the two-party system has brought us? All of the Founders warned us about allowing parties to control our government, and it can be easily argued, for one thing, that the elevation of a way-too-strong executive is exactly what Washington said would happen.
It's not whether there is something better than democracy out there, it's a matter of whether the two-party system actually is democratic. The representative democracy the Founders had in mind involved constituencies in districts electing THEIR representative, not some lesser of evil candidate who was part of a cabal that conspired to control the government strictly due to a numerical majority. Representative democracy is an issue-by-issue matter. MY representative is the candidate who best matches the values and beliefs of my district's voters. That rep then goes to legislature and works together with like-minded reps on each individual issue. If a majority arises, then the issue passes; if not, it fails. On the next issue, a different set of reps might agree.
The artificial coagulation of bags of issue positions the parties represent is distinctly un-democratic because, on the district level, it forces voters to settle ...
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