I chose Socialist simply because I prefer what they seem to have in Scandinavia, than what the US Democratic Party or the UK Labour Party seems to have on offer.
The US Democratic Party is a lot less coherent entity than the left-er party in most countries. In most OECD countries, the person who says “I wish our government spending : GDP ratio was more like Canada’s” is a right-wing position while “I wish our government spending: GDP ratio was more like Sweden’s” is a left-wing position. In the the US, people espousing either of these views end up in the Democratic coalition, because the entire spectrum is shifted so far to the right, and there is nowhere else to go.
A lot of US Democrat-leaning voters wish the US was a parliamentary system, so that the centrist and center-left wings of the party could split (as they are in Canada between Liberals and New Democrats).
“I wish our government spending : GDP ratio was more like Canada’s” is a right-wing position while “I wish our government spending: GDP ratio was more like Sweden’s”
Yes politics really is this boring over here.
The US Democratic Party is a lot less coherent entity than the left-er party in most countries.
Arguably the Republican party is also a less coherent party than many right-er parties in continental Europe, where you usually have a “libertarian leaning” smaller-goverment party, a social conservative (Christian-ish) party and occasionally also in addition to that a nationalist party.
Consider for a moment that Ron Paul, Patrick Buchanan and George Bush are in the same party. What’s the overlap between these three in terms of something like trade tariffs, immigration, foreign relations, which parts of government spending should be cut, where spending should increase, meddling in social issues, education ect. ?
I’ve heard some of my countrymen complain we have too many parties with little variation among them. But I’m rather glad coalition building is required to be done in a arguably more transparent way. It also makes individual parties a temporary affair, since they break up and recombine all the time. Bad parties also tend to fail to enter parliament when they screw up things too much, which helps cull blind loyalty votes. It also allows some parties like the Greens or the Pirate party that otherwise wouldn’t be heard to get a voice in parliament and I’m glad they do.
The US Democratic Party is a lot less coherent entity than the left-er party in most countries. In most OECD countries, the person who says “I wish our government spending : GDP ratio was more like Canada’s” is a right-wing position while “I wish our government spending: GDP ratio was more like Sweden’s” is a left-wing position. In the the US, people espousing either of these views end up in the Democratic coalition, because the entire spectrum is shifted so far to the right, and there is nowhere else to go.
A lot of US Democrat-leaning voters wish the US was a parliamentary system, so that the centrist and center-left wings of the party could split (as they are in Canada between Liberals and New Democrats).
Yes politics really is this boring over here.
Arguably the Republican party is also a less coherent party than many right-er parties in continental Europe, where you usually have a “libertarian leaning” smaller-goverment party, a social conservative (Christian-ish) party and occasionally also in addition to that a nationalist party.
Consider for a moment that Ron Paul, Patrick Buchanan and George Bush are in the same party. What’s the overlap between these three in terms of something like trade tariffs, immigration, foreign relations, which parts of government spending should be cut, where spending should increase, meddling in social issues, education ect. ?
I’ve heard some of my countrymen complain we have too many parties with little variation among them. But I’m rather glad coalition building is required to be done in a arguably more transparent way. It also makes individual parties a temporary affair, since they break up and recombine all the time. Bad parties also tend to fail to enter parliament when they screw up things too much, which helps cull blind loyalty votes. It also allows some parties like the Greens or the Pirate party that otherwise wouldn’t be heard to get a voice in parliament and I’m glad they do.