[geeks] Socialized medicine [was Re: nVidia 8800GT for Apple Mac Pro]

[Michael Parson]

On Fri, 23 May 2008, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> Mike Meredith wrote:
>
>> 0: Lenin's 'soviet of soviets' was sprung on the communists as a
>> bit of coup after the bolsheviks (a minority group) took over. Most
>> non-stalinist/leninist communists and anarchists don't regard the
>> USSR as a communist state; simply a dictatorship.
>
> Indeed.  It is a mistake to classify the USSR as a socialist or
> communist, or even Marxist, state.
>
> Of course, one could also soundly argue that it is a similar error to
> say that the US is a democracy.  (Setting aside for the moment the
> precise legal distinctions between a democracy and a Constitutional
> republic.)  We have much of the trappings of a democracy, but in
> point of fact, the actual effective ability of the citizenry to elect
> a new government of their choice is severely limited by the depth
> of control the political machines have built up to limit the viable
> choices available to voters.  /De jure/, we have an open democracy;
> /de facto/, we have a two-party system with very little difference
> between the two, both of them determinedly engaged in undermining and
> subverting the Constitution as fast as they can get away with it.

I'm a bit of a conspiracy nut on this one, but I almost believe that
there is a purposeful movement out there to make the citizens of the
US believe that they live in a democracy, which we don't, as you said,
we're a constitutional republic.  You're vote doesn't count for the
election of our 'highest' office, the presidency.  Your vote doesn't
even count during the primaries, just like the electoral college is used
for the final selection of the president, the two major parties have
delegates that do the actual selection of who runs on the ticket in
November.

We were never supposed to be a democracy, those that wrote the
constitution did everything they could to ensure we would never be one.
The only part of the federal government we, as citizens, were supposed
to have any direct say in was the election of members to the House of
Representatives.  It was the 17th amendment to the Constitution that
gave us direct election of members to the Senate.  Originally, they were
to be chosen by the legislatures of their member states.  Personally,
I think we should go back to doing it that way, but I seem to be in a
minority on that one, mostly, because too many people think they live
in a democracy and their vote counts.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson at bl.org