[Harbinger of DOOM]

Bloody political correctness is more important than accuracy or honesty these days. And politics is just a ****ing popularity contest; no one in the job seems to give a damn what they do as long as they get re-elected.

I think that statement sums up everything thats wrong with these damn beauraucrats, and their mile-long rolls of red tape.
God, I hate our election system.
I'd give anything to go back in time and give ole Tom Jefferson a few pointers............

[Mefustae]

Bloody political correctness is more important than accuracy or honesty these days. And politics is just a ****ing popularity contest; no one in the job seems to give a damn what they do as long as they get re-elected.

Exactly. That's something I really noticed last bout of elections down here. Only a tiny fraction of the TV-ads for either bloke actually focussed on what they'd do and how they'd make the country better, with the vast majority of ads simply going "the other guy did this, so vote for me".

[vyper]

Negative campaigning is the ultimate in laziness. You don't have to make the case for any of your own arguments, just spray the other guy with enough manure to make him smell bad.

[Harbinger of DOOM]

Yeah, and people are too stupid to smell the guy who supposedly "smells better".

People individually are OK,
but people in a group are complete morons.

[Sarafan]

...and also the biggest problem are the african governments themselves.

Which simply cannot be remedied in the current western political climate. I mean, the reality is that if you're a politician, you quite simply can't say something like "African Governments are problematic and they need serious Western help", as you'll be labelled as a racist by the opposition and ousted next round of elections, regardless of the merit of whatever it is you said. Simple as that.

At the same time if the western powers dont help them they'll still be labeled as racist and imperialistic, another major problem, IMO, is exactly that ''humanitarian'' help, if we always continue to help them on this and that they'll never have any reason to fix their own problems because we'll be there for them.

[aldo_14]

Negative campaigning is the ultimate in laziness. You don't have to make the case for any of your own arguments, just spray the other guy with enough manure to make him smell bad.

Pff.  We all know you're focus on 'negative campaigning' is merely a smokescreen to draw away attention from the allegations over you being seen in a Giffnock motel with an uninflated lilo, a mullet wig, and a goat.

[Mars]

Just read this

Suddenly, I feel soooo much better about living in the US.

[pecenipicek]

after reading this whole thread and, all, i'm happy living in a country still rebuilding itself from the war(which ended ten years ago... meh, everybody steals a wee bit for himself...), where politicians just steal, steal, steal, steal and oh, did i mention that they steal?


anyways, this whole thing is just plain ****ed up. then again, you brits are known for being up the head a wee bit.


this was a pointless post. gah.

[Rictor]

If nothing else, there's whole libraries of books warning about the dangers of fascism in the name of security, militarism and so on. The "this **** ain't right" aspect has filtered into the public consciousness. If they start fingerprinting people and putting up checkpoints, it's very easy to point and say "Damn it, you're turning this country into Italy/Germany/Soviet Union/1984" and every instantly feels repulsed.

However, there is no such widespread fear of a nanny state. Aside from Brave New World, I don't really know of any books or real-life examples of nanny-statism run amuck. People don't have that little warning bell in their head telling them that it's a Bad Thing.

[Mars]

I thought everyone in the freakin' world needed to read 1984 in 10th grade! Come'on people!

[Grug]

I always imagined a system where only the educated were allowed to vote, or held more sway in voting decisions. But again, that would be filled with loopholes also. =/
In the end, I think Democracy's don't really work as well as other systems in situations. A benevolent king with ultimate power could most likely do far better for a nation than a democratically elected system of rulership.

[Mars]

I think that's called an "Enlightened Monarch" in order to be effective there would need to be a foolproof way of selecting the next monarch, which is biggest problem with the system. However, with brainmapping technology on the rise...