Comments | patrickds: Florida, the forgotten

patrickds

Florida, the forgotten

Jan 27, 2008 17:22

I decided to write an opinion piece on what is happening in Florida and how I feel about it. The mainstream media and most of the leading candidates are ignoring the situation, and I feel that as a Floridian I have a responsibility to tell things from the point of view of a person directly impacted by the debacle. It jumps around a bit, is somewhat ( Read more... )

Comments 3

gundevako January 27 2008, 23:47:16 UTC

I guess the first thing I should say in response is, be happy you don't have political parties like here in Europe, here they have even less say. There was no referendum when they here for signing the EU constitution or for exchanging the mark for the euro, and these decisions have a direct effect on the people of the country ( ... )

patrickds March 26 2008, 09:30:12 UTC

Hmm... I don't know about Germany, but in Sweden they had a vote on whether to adopt the Euro or not, and they decided not to. I don't think the vote was binding, though; it was more like a large poll (in the guise of an election) to help the government make a decision. Not sure, though, but I know my Swedish friend voted to keep the Kroner. But, yeah, that would stink to not have much say in how your country is run ( ... )

gundevako March 26 2008, 17:32:25 UTC

I think your right, that is the way it is in a lot of countries. Although in German the coalition thing is pretty new. The main liberal party here in Germany, the SPD, is having problems because some of it's members want to start a coalition with the far left. You are also right about how similar the people in the parties are over here. It is kind of creepy how they almost don't seem to be individuals sometimes, just members of a party. In that way I do like the US system better, because we acknowledge that there is a connection with the individual and the type of politics he does.

It is probably worth mentioning that the LDP is a phenomenon in world politics. I believe that no other modern parliamentary system have that type of constellation. Also on a related note, I find Fukuda vastly more boring than Abe or Koizumi! Seriously, Japanese politics, get interesting again!