They should emulate the Libertarians, who are another minority party. The Libertarians are trying to win offices at all levels (to get a track record), and are non-destructively coat tailing the party closest to them (like Ron Paul).
As a side note, prior to his great disservice, Ralph Nader actually served the public interest for many years by leading lawsuits against corporate abuses that were very real. And thinking of that made me realize what it is that truly may give America a claim to exceptionalism.
A few months ago there was a heavily hyped TV show about a fictional middle of the road News Anchor who suddenly went off one day and made a speech about how America is not the first in anything, what is everybody talking about. He listed all the claims to fame and cited statistics to show America is unexceptional in each area cited.
But there is one area where America is the best in the world: Lawyers. America has the world's best ratio of Lawyers to general population. Massive effort and expense is put into getting things right and supporting our philosopher kings. The fact that anybody that does wrong can get sued into the ground, especially if they have deep pockets, and that lawyers get a cut of the huge payout that inspires them to work on speculation, means the tort courts are a real force. Individuals and institutions behave themselves, especially if they are rich. Essentially the cost of legal assistance is mitigated by having the loser pay for it and the losing lawyer work for free. But it looks like this doesn't cause the rich to run away, like the rich are running from France. Its like being asked to wipe your feet when you walk in the house, I guess. Also, mitigating factors include the protective powers of incorporation and bankruptcy (depending on state).
And that will remain in effect throughout 2013.
]]>And yes, the "political reform is desperately needed" thing could apply equally well to the UK -- the largest proportion of votes cast at the last election went to minority/none-of-the-above parties, and things are going downhill rapidly. While Queen Elizabeth is personally popular, her eldest son and heir is anything but. And the prospect of her death coinciding with the third dip in a triple-dip recession doesn't bear thinking about.
]]>Whether they end up calling for a separatist or semi-autonomous Syrian Kurdistan or calling for a wider Kurdistan I don’t know but I think we’ll hear mention of Kurdistan more often in 2013 than in 2012.
In UK domestic politics I’ll be keeping an eye on UKIP’s preparations for the 2014 European elections.
]]>As for UKIP, they leave a very nasty taste in my mouth. At least the BNP and EDL have such obviously repulsive thugs as leaders.
]]>Either way, personally, they would never attract my vote but I’d very much like it if they won a significant number of seats in the future.
]]>Which is one of the reasons I’d like them to win some seats. I’d like that sort of thing out in the open. And I’d like an opportunity for that sort of thinking to evaporate from parties that are likely to be leading centre right coallition governments in the UK and coalese in a minority party where I think it can be contained better. I’d actually quite like a party to run on an explicitly homophobic platform and then be defeated. (But that last bit probably requires the naunced voting of STV.)
I’d like to see the right wing populist agenda put under some level of public scrutiny and the test of actually having to vote for or against particular pieces of legislation when they are presented.
Also, they had nearly a million votes at the last election and not a single seat at Westminster.
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