In the interest of political discussion...

[Ashaman Throatblade]

Since I am a political fanatic, I wanted to start a political thread.

Issue 1: What political alignment are you? Why?

I am, personally, in US politics, a Democrat, but you cn also call me a commie. Personally, my own beliefs are that a communist economy works much better than a capitalist economy and the effect on the society as a whole is much better. However, in this post-modern world we live in, capitalism is a fact of life, so I must choose the political party that suits me the most.

Issue 2: What is your opinion on the W. Bush administration as a whole?

Disgusted. The way they attacked Iraq and Afganistan post-9/11 frightened me. Bush has been filling the government with his cronies (FEMA anyone?) and he's been wrecking our version of democracy. Personally, I'm amazed he was re-elected.

[Punkablood]

One word; BSMA.


I don't align myself with any party, I would actually JUDGE which candidate is best and USE my brain once I can vote. Although right now, I guess I'm a democrat, because I freaking want to blast George W. Bush with a tazer.


I've seen my sister's friend's lives go downhill, since some of them had to go to Iraq

so it's real to me

and really flipping depressing.


I'm a pacifist

[Dirk Thornclaw]

Right off the bat -

Keep it civilized, folks

I know that there are both hard-core Republicans and hard-core Democrats on this board, so keep your discussion under control


Now,

I'm Canadian. We don't segregate ourselves as "Democrats" or "Republicans". We vote for whoever we decide is better at the time, whether it be Democrat, Conservative, Bloc Quebecois, or Liberal (our four main political parties, though the Bloc Quebecois is only in Quebec, really). And that's one thing that really annoys me about American politics - everyone has to categorize themselves for life. I always hear "I'm Republican/Demorcrat" and they say it like it's their party for life.

I have both Liberal and Conservative feelings on different issues. I guess one might consider me more Democratic, since the majority of my feelings slide to the left.

As for the Communism issue...it works in theory, but in practice it has many downfalls. Then again, the same can be said for Democracy. There's no "right" form of government, really.


As for your second question...

Anyone who knows me knows I dislike Bush. Lately he hasn't been as bad, but that's because he has no wars to play with. But the problem here is that both sides, republican and democrat, are stuffed full of propoganda. We here in Canada, and basically everywhere else in the world, do not get (as much) Americanized propaganda like you Americans do (and you do, whatever you say).

I'm not, however, going to beat a dead horse. Iraq and Afghanistan is in the past (well, the bulk of the issues surrounding them are), and I wish to leave it there.

And I still say it's the Saudi royal family who's responsible for 9-11, not Osama Bin Laden

[Typhoon]

We basically have a one-party system here in Singapore, since the Opposition is a farce. The ruling party, the People's Action Party, could redraw the opposition constituency boundaries into a group of constituencies, normally with a very strong candidate for at least one of them, like a Minister or something. BUT they don't, because they want to keep Singapore democratic.

Opinion is quite divided about America here. Most people just wish America would stop interfering in the affairs of other countries, like the China-Taiwan thing. And Saddam didn't have any WOMD, did he? This defenders of democracy thing is wearing a bit thin, especially when innocent civilians are killed.

The rest love America, for some reason or another. No offence intended, but I recently talked to this Indian in my class, and he said America was the best place in the world. I was rather confused, as even if he didn't like Singapore, he would at least love India, wouldn't he? But no.

We were going to kill each other during the Kerry-Bush election.

[archerpaw]

Gee whiz, In Australia, the general opinion of G.W.Bush is variable between indifference and blind hatred.
No-one thinks he has done a decent job, and sure saddam was bad, but is what there is now any better? There is certainly more media coverage!

Ashaman, have you read any books by George Orwell?

Personally, as far as political alignment goes, I think there are much worse choices than John Howard.
Sure, no-one likes taxes, but he's an experianced polotician who has what it takes, he's not perfect, but that's life.

[Ashaman Throatblade]

Archerpaw, yes, I've read both Animal Farm and 1984. While I insulted greatly by the first, both were delightful reads. He's a very good writer...though I disagreewith him on several key points.

typhoon, being a second-generation Indian, I can see what you mean. All political parties there (except for the Communist Party) are right-wing and heavily support America. Pity.

No time to write anything right now. Will reply more fully soon.

[grenn]

I'm a replublican but I vote for who I want to.

[Durriac]

Yar, I be another hard-core liberal. And I say liberal, not Democratic; there is a difference. I have also read both of those by George Orwell and agreed with them whole-heartedly. I do have an example of this from real life too to back me up as to why I'm not Communist.

This summer, as some of you from the old Horde may have noticed, I was away for a month when I went to Russian camp. Of course, we had Soviet day, where we raised the Soviet flag and sang Soviet national anthem and saw all the propaganda, and all that good stuff. But also since it was a Russian immersion camp, they banned all non-Russian stuff (except for like t-shirts and stuff). So during the day there were these photocopies of some random pages of Harry Potter (it had come out while we were in camp). At dinner, the leaders made a huge announcement and got really angry and threatened calls home if people who had any information didn't fess up. It worked, too. A lot of people told on others, even for stuff that didn't have anything to do with Harry Potter, and you didn't know who you could trust, and it was really messed up and freaky, even for me, who didn't have anything bad and saw the pages only for an instant. That was the kind of paralyzing fear that the Communist governments had. It may sound silly, but it's very real.

But other than that, I'm pretty much as left as you can get without being socialist. Well maybe some of that too.

And I agree with Dirk. Some very bad things have been said on the subject of politics....

[springblade]

I have no affiliations yet. The young minds can become corrupt.

[Typhoon]

Can?

[grenn]

Well they can be influeninced

[Typhoon]

Will.

[grenn]

yes. I think i'm gonna vote republican.

[Typhoon]

*Coughs out blood and starts writhing on the floor.*

[grenn]

My friends in the band have turned me though to a democrat. I like there beliefs about the people.

[Typhoon]

*Miraculously swallows the blood he spat up, gets up and starts jumping for joy.*

[archerpaw]

Well Ashman, while I Do agree with you that George Orwell didn't have everything perfect in his books. I feel that Animal farm shoots too low and that 1984 Shoots too high, though both distopias portray what I Reckon to be mostly what totalitarian governments try to be.

I do think that personal intrests that don't fit what the controlling group decide are acceptable, are stifled and stomped on, something reflected sharply in 1984. This is true of ALL governments, no matter how liberal, somebody is gonna be Axed.

In Queensland, Australia, It is Illegal to Home-educate without A teaching degree. While this sounds sensible, It has the effect that children are sent to schools, at which, they are taught not what parents would like their children to learn, but what the state government would like them to learn.

If a teacher were to be seen as too critical of evolution, or even say something that might be construed as teaching ID, then he or she will will be 90% sure of getting fired (100% in a specifically state educational institute), and Possibly ostrasized from their profession.
While it isn't as bad as getting jailed(or "disappeared", as several people from ex-communist countries and dictatorships have told me), this has perhaps the aim, and certainly the effect, of mostly removing educational influence that doesn't fit the state government's criteria, such as sharing christianity, judaism and other Faiths that are centrally pivotal aroung the concept of Intelligent Design (ID). I should also add that controls are getting much stricter on such things as christian evangelical ventures in Australia.

Now, while i'm anything but crash-hot about democracy, I would have it almost any day in preference to communism (Being a Christian and all). At least in democracies we get to choose between the options, and try to pick one that doesn't look too bad.

[Durriac]

It would seem that way. I'm taking Bio this year, and while we haven't run into evolution yet, I'm pretty sure that it will be taught as evolution. And as an agnostic, I'm perfectly fine with it.

Sure, some ideas are trampled. It's just where people draw the line. For example, some people may think some things are great while others think that they're entirely not up for discussion (like gay marriage, for example). But most ideas should be listened to with an open mind.

And FYI, Communism isn't necessarily anti-Christian. It's just that most Communist governments try to squash the spiritual as much as possible, since Communism is a materialistic theory.

[grenn]

I like politics

[archerpaw]

Sorry if i gave the impression that communism is speciffically anti-christian, Communism is anti-religous in general.
To shoot off on a different tangent, what are people's opinions of fundumentalism? Personally, for me they come under the category of nightmares.