The Stagnation of Politics

[Saige Dragon]

Hello NSG! LETS MAKE SOME FUCKING NOISE!

Okay, so I've been thinking ( I know, I thought that was a lie too) Have there been any new political ideas at all in the last 100 years or so? Political systems, political ideologies; all old ideas that we keep on trotting out. As everything relies on new ideas to keep it going, what do you think is going to happen to politics? Will people gradually gravitate towards the centre, will democracies die out, will a new idea come along and spark off a brand new era or revolutions and muffins?

Well here in Canada, Stephen Harper seems to be hellbent on proroguing parliament as much as possible to avoid accomplishing any sort of real governing. Nothing wrong with essentially shutting down democracy and all that, is there?

[Komuniste]

The next time the left wing proposes "compromise" to the right wing, at least in the U.S., on any basis other than "you right-wingers compromise by becoming imitation left-wingers", will be the first time. Whenever the left wing trots out its "be reasonable" act, what it really means is "be reasonable and give in to our demands."

I think you're getting the left wing mixed up with the right wing. It's the republicans who won't vote for anything besides what their corporate lobbyists tell them to.

As long as the extreme left wing maintains its lust for absolute power and its non-so-secret desire to create the equivalent of Oceania, with itself as the Party, there is little likelihood of compromise and little motivation for the right wing to consider it.

Most extreme lefties want an anarchist hippiefest. Unfortunately, there aren't many extreme lefties, so we're willing to settle for a socialist democracy. Above all, we don't want to become a Puritan/Capitalist Oligarchy like the extreme right wants.

The lamb has nothing to gain from "compromising" with the meat packer. The fact is, the right wing doesn't trust the left wing, and has little if any basis for doing so.

The meat packer is the right wing, and the lamb is the voters, and the left wing is the sheperd.

Fortunately, when the extreme left wing had something approaching absolute power in the U.S. (i.e., before Senator Brown), it proved unable to wield it.

I have no idea what you're talking about. The extreme left-wing never had power. However, I do know what happened when the extreme right came into power (Reagan) - our debt increased from 7 million to 3 trillion, class inequality grew by leaps and bounds (with the most wealthy making most of the gain), we engaged in a few scandals (ie, Iranian-contra scandal), our environment-protection programs were destroyed, our educational system went down the drain, we supported terrorists in regions that had chosen communism and set up puppet dictators. Later, we oppressed homosexuals through DOMA and DIDT, damaged our economy even more with another war, outlawed free protest through the Patriot Act, and class inequality grew even more.
I think it's time we stopped going right and moved left. More importantly, it's time we stopped going authoritarian and went libertarian (as in, anti-authoritarian, not the American Libertarian party. "Libertarian" can be either left or right).



EDIT: Holy moley, I just realized, the election for the vacant senator seat was today. Crap, Brown won (not that real healthcare reform would have been possible even if he didn't...). I thought you were talking about a different Brown that I hadn't heard about, since the only time America was anywhere close to being on the left-wing was post-Depression to pre-Reagan days (which, coincidently, were America's most prosperous times, if I recall) O_O.

You SERIOUSLY think we're on the left-wing now (or had been anytime recently)?!? Obama isn't even on the left wing. Heck, he's not even a centrist. He's a center-right corporate scumbag. Only difference between him and Bush is that he does a better job of hiding his... er, right-wingism.

[The Romulan Republic]

Politics will only move forward when the left wing dies a painful death.

So your answer to political stagnation is the elimination of all opposition to your own ideology?