Being in the Minority is No Party
TPM Cafe contributor Bill Bishop answers an interesting question:
What happens to political minorities in communities with large political majorities?
They shut up. At book club or in church, they cut short any conversation bordering on politics. A woman in Washington State, a Democrat, told me that as her county grew increasingly Republican, she began to feel "like a second-class citizen, not entitled to have opinions." I interviewed Democrats in one Texas Hill Country town (80% Republican) about a float they built for a July 4th parade. "We got it all ready," said the county Democratic chair, "but nobody wanted to ride." Nobody wanted to be identified as a Democrat in a staunchly Republican community.
Bishop goes on to mention the harassment in staunchly Democratic Austin of a Republican, whose car was egged because of bumper stickers expressing his politics. I've witnessed the same here in Northeast Florida, where it sometimes feels like Democrats are so scarce that we should be a protected species you can visit in zoos. During the 2004 election signs for John Kerry were routinely vandalized and stolen around my neighborhood.
I've never understood how some Americans could be passionate about politics without recognizing the obligation to be respectful of dissent. Some of the worst excesses of government occur when one party has unchecked power over the executive and legislative branches. An aggressive and healthy minority party is essential to the system.
Comments
The same thing happens to Republicans here in ca 70% Democrat Bainbridge Island -- Republicans are routinely booed and their campaign signs are removed in the middle of the night.
I also think it's important for a representative system to break out of the false dichotomy of liberal vs conservative that's promoted by our two-party system. Many people won't vote for a third-party candidate because they know that candidate won't win. Or maybe they find a two-valued orientation easier to understand, and don't want to be able to see more dimensions to anyone's political stance.
if in July 2008 as an American Democrat you feel unjustly treated nearly anywhere in the world, that's how you know you have a persecution complex.
Most of the protections built into the constitution are intended to prevent a tyrany by the majority: religious protectiosn for example are intended to keep the government out of the practice of endorsing or controlling religious practice.
When I hear people claim this is a "Christian Nation" I recall the many stories of religious persecution my freidsn have experienced when there's a large majority that feels they are empowered to practice hate as a political right: when patriotism becomes akin to a religion we loose the freedom's we all hope to enjoy.
I do think that two-party politics is a statistically derived outcome that might be validated with "game theory". Just a hunch... I don't have the math skills to validate the idea but the polarizing nature of politics seems to drive a populace into two waring factions. More than two becomes too hard to negotiate/manage for the power brokers.
Every election at this level of scale boils down to an virtual 50/50 split. If you had 3 strong parties they might just do deals and resolve it that way. Perhaps it's a series of such deals that created the system as it currently functions.
I lived in Berkeley for three years, man. I was in the shit.
Fortunately, the years were '92-94, and all the commie liberals were ecstatic over Clinton. I could try to start political battles at cocktail parties all night long and not get a rise out of anyone, not even the gays or their flamboyant, gay-seeming straight friends. I was all, "socialism is bad, for serious" and they were all "Hmm, that's a very interesting position to take." It was weird.
Hey McD, my theory is that half of us are retards. And why we need to pick religious persecution and patriotism out of the lineup and make a big deal about them I don't know (wait I do know - you're a contrary Larry and want to be different), but I personally would like to speak against the nazi tyranny of people who go through supermarket checkout lines slowly. Off with their heads.
Rogers must live in one of those gated communities populated by neocon Nancies like Uncle Mikey (who the hell in Berkeley would invite him to a cocktail party? Probably some poseur professor trying to build his multi-cultural cred).
Almost everyone in my neighborhood would be a Social Democrat if he could. And no, we don't sacrifice babies on the full moon-- we just flay any stray Republicans who wander through and barbecue them.;-)
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