Bernie Sanders on what happened in the past elections

Everybody's fav socialist!

Be happy they tell you that your free with all your guns, chumps!

Gil Fulbright clones win in US elections

Remember Gil Fulbright?  He's the honest politician!

He's what most of you morons voted into office!

Why choose the lesser evil?

No worse than the other choices:

That about says it all…

or why I hate US elections and am happy that I have somewhat insulated myself from them:

civics lesson

Thanks to microdot at the Brain Police. This should be passed on.

How Americans elect their president:



The problems with that system:

Why gun control always misfires

From the Guardian

The NRA is a fringe interest group – only the US's dysfunctional electoral system allows it to leverage so much power.

For all the national outrage over the Tucson massacre, and renewed appeals by well-meaning politicians like Michael Bloomberg, everyone knows that sentiment will not translate into commonsense gun control laws.

As after the Columbine massacre in 1999, national polls show a majority of Americans favouring stricter gun control laws, yet as with so many other issues, majority support does not necessarily lead to congressional action. How can there be such an ongoing disconnect between popular opinion and public policy?

As Republican strategist and NRA board member Grover Norquist has said, "The question is intensity versus preference. You can always get a certain percentage to say they are in favour of some gun controls. But are they going to vote on their 'control' position?"

Though most voters back gun control, says Norquist, their support doesn't move them to the polls. "But for that 4-5% who care about guns, they will vote on this." And in the battleground states and swing congressional districts, a change in 5% of the vote can make all the difference. So the NRA's influence has come from its capacity to move its supporters in these key swing districts and states – with its message, more than its money.

The reality is that the dynamics of winner-take-all elections allow gun control opponents – just like anti-Castro diehards in Florida – to form a potent single-issue voting bloc that far outweighs their minority status. American pundits and analysts often portray multiparty democracies elected by proportional representation, such as Israel and Italy, as being beholden to tiny political parties of extremists who hold hostage their coalition governments. Yet, they fail to recognise how the dynamics of our own electoral politics allow well-organised political minorities like the NRA to leverage disproportionately significant "swing voter" constituencies to push their radical agendas on the mainstream.

If we don't understand how our system works, we will miss the mark when we try to improve it.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/jan/24/gun-crime-arizona-shooting

Attack ads circa 1800

Another repost from my blog

From the American Creation blog:

210 years ago, at the turn of the century, two of the biggest players in the American Revolution exchanged blows over some of the same issues that still occupy us to this day. John Adams, the incumbent who had taken the Federalist reigns from the great George Washington, squared off with his on-again, off-again, on-again Virginia friend, Thomas Jefferson. Contrary to what we are often led to believe, this contest was incredibly fierce and oftentimes took a very negative tone. For example, when the Adams camp learned of Jefferson's desire to thwart the Federalists they accused Jefferson of plotting to destroy the very fabric of society by eliminating god from American life.

Even Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind and a threat to our way of life"!--How often have you heard me call Jefferson a slimebag on this blog? Here you get to see the evil's that Jefferson would bring about from the voices of the time.





Historical background for the Election of 1800:



As I said, American Creation is a fun blog to read!

Seen in another forum

"US electoral democracy is just a structured system of legalised bribery."

Discuss possibly in relation to ALEC