I actually copied this from a comment to an article published in "The Independent" news paper.
It's written very thoroughly and I thought I should post it here.
Brexit plus plus means that both the US and the UK have FASCIST governments.
Centre ground is dead in the US and the UK because they both have ANTI-DEMOCRATIC election systems which lead to two strong political parties in constant conflict and total confrontation.
In other European countries (apart form the UK), coalition governments are the norm and the election systems have at least some proportional elements. So the political discourse is based on consensus and searching for a compromise.
A proportional system with coalition governments creates a lot of space for establishment of new political parties and splintering of existing parties as political opinions diversify and the circumstances and values in the society change. New parties have a chance of making it to the parliament and even to the coalition government.
On the other hand, the anti-democratic two-party system in the US and the UK leads to vicious counter-productive in-fighting in the two dominant political parties (see Trump vs other Republicans, Clinton vs Sanders, and the total in-fighting in Conservatives and Labour). Any splintering would make the splintered new party in effect unelectable. Moreover, these anti-democratic systems leave the two major parties open to be HIJACKED by extremists, which is why now both the US and the UK have fascist governments.
In both the US and the UK, the people are very badly educated about the basic principles of democracy and in particular about how democratic systems in OTHER countries work (in the UK also about how the EU works). They are brainwashed into believing that the system in their country is the best and the most democratic.
In both the US and the UK, it is allowed to pour absolutely huge amounts of private money into political parties and political campaigns, thus making the system of political elites deeply inherently corrupt. The politicians are sold to their financial donors.
Both the US and the UK have serious problems with their brainwashing media (owned by powerful individuals) spouting aggressive lying propaganda day in, day out. It is easy for extremist demagogues to con badly educated brainwashed people via lying divisive rhetoric, spreading of hatred and promising a land of milk and honey to vote for their political agenda, where the extremists are only interested in grabbing more power to themselves and do not care about the people.
It is shocking to see how easily the poorest and most vulnerable people are conned into voting against their obvious interests: the people in the US vote against public medical care (because they have been brainwashed into believing that public healthcare is an evil communist thing) and the people in the UK against the EU (because they have been brainwashed into believing that the EU is an evil dictatorship to be blamed for everything).
In both cases, people are blissfully ignorant, hence easily manipulated. In both the US and the UK, people have delusions of grandeur of own nation due to toxic political rhetoric, with slogans about the US/UK being the greatest nations in the world (when they are in reality by far the most dangerous countries in the world in the last decades with undemocratic political systems).
Democracy is not a static state. It is a long-term PROCESS. Democracy has nothing to do with politicians. Democracy resides with active, well-educated, critical, well-informed and well-organised PEOPLE. Both the US and the UK have very rigid ARCHAIC systems, with huge powers of political elites. The UK does not even have a written constitution. And the US has a written constitution which the Americans are brainwashed into regarding as some untouchable holy scripture. Both the US and the UK do also not even have a proper separation of powers (legislative - parliament, executive - government and judiciary – courts), which is the basis of modern democratic systems. They both also have the UNdemocratic archaic requirement for the voters having to register themselves (whereas in European countries the voting right is regarded as an AUTOMATIC unalienable democratic right).
All other European countries have similar democratic systems based on written constitutions and shared modern European democratic principles. These shared democratic principles were established and are maintained and gradually improved via cross-border exchange of ideas, initiatives and experiences with different elements of democracy at all levels (from constitutional law experts to ordinary people). The democratic systems in European countries change gradually as the circumstances, the values and the needs of the people change. Unlike the US, European countries gradually change / modernise their written constitutions too. We all regard democracy as work in progress (and this of course also includes the EU – we need to work together to gradually make it even better). Both the US and the UK have HUGE democratic deficits. They do not even have democratic systems in any modern sense of the word!
By Ajda Slovenia
original Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-election-centre-ground-theresa-may-brexit-a7406786.html
It's written very thoroughly and I thought I should post it here.
Brexit plus plus means that both the US and the UK have FASCIST governments.
Centre ground is dead in the US and the UK because they both have ANTI-DEMOCRATIC election systems which lead to two strong political parties in constant conflict and total confrontation.
In other European countries (apart form the UK), coalition governments are the norm and the election systems have at least some proportional elements. So the political discourse is based on consensus and searching for a compromise.
A proportional system with coalition governments creates a lot of space for establishment of new political parties and splintering of existing parties as political opinions diversify and the circumstances and values in the society change. New parties have a chance of making it to the parliament and even to the coalition government.
On the other hand, the anti-democratic two-party system in the US and the UK leads to vicious counter-productive in-fighting in the two dominant political parties (see Trump vs other Republicans, Clinton vs Sanders, and the total in-fighting in Conservatives and Labour). Any splintering would make the splintered new party in effect unelectable. Moreover, these anti-democratic systems leave the two major parties open to be HIJACKED by extremists, which is why now both the US and the UK have fascist governments.
In both the US and the UK, the people are very badly educated about the basic principles of democracy and in particular about how democratic systems in OTHER countries work (in the UK also about how the EU works). They are brainwashed into believing that the system in their country is the best and the most democratic.
In both the US and the UK, it is allowed to pour absolutely huge amounts of private money into political parties and political campaigns, thus making the system of political elites deeply inherently corrupt. The politicians are sold to their financial donors.
Both the US and the UK have serious problems with their brainwashing media (owned by powerful individuals) spouting aggressive lying propaganda day in, day out. It is easy for extremist demagogues to con badly educated brainwashed people via lying divisive rhetoric, spreading of hatred and promising a land of milk and honey to vote for their political agenda, where the extremists are only interested in grabbing more power to themselves and do not care about the people.
It is shocking to see how easily the poorest and most vulnerable people are conned into voting against their obvious interests: the people in the US vote against public medical care (because they have been brainwashed into believing that public healthcare is an evil communist thing) and the people in the UK against the EU (because they have been brainwashed into believing that the EU is an evil dictatorship to be blamed for everything).
In both cases, people are blissfully ignorant, hence easily manipulated. In both the US and the UK, people have delusions of grandeur of own nation due to toxic political rhetoric, with slogans about the US/UK being the greatest nations in the world (when they are in reality by far the most dangerous countries in the world in the last decades with undemocratic political systems).
Democracy is not a static state. It is a long-term PROCESS. Democracy has nothing to do with politicians. Democracy resides with active, well-educated, critical, well-informed and well-organised PEOPLE. Both the US and the UK have very rigid ARCHAIC systems, with huge powers of political elites. The UK does not even have a written constitution. And the US has a written constitution which the Americans are brainwashed into regarding as some untouchable holy scripture. Both the US and the UK do also not even have a proper separation of powers (legislative - parliament, executive - government and judiciary – courts), which is the basis of modern democratic systems. They both also have the UNdemocratic archaic requirement for the voters having to register themselves (whereas in European countries the voting right is regarded as an AUTOMATIC unalienable democratic right).
All other European countries have similar democratic systems based on written constitutions and shared modern European democratic principles. These shared democratic principles were established and are maintained and gradually improved via cross-border exchange of ideas, initiatives and experiences with different elements of democracy at all levels (from constitutional law experts to ordinary people). The democratic systems in European countries change gradually as the circumstances, the values and the needs of the people change. Unlike the US, European countries gradually change / modernise their written constitutions too. We all regard democracy as work in progress (and this of course also includes the EU – we need to work together to gradually make it even better). Both the US and the UK have HUGE democratic deficits. They do not even have democratic systems in any modern sense of the word!
By Ajda Slovenia
original Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-presidential-election-centre-ground-theresa-may-brexit-a7406786.html
Good post! I read your blog often and you always post excellent content. I posted this article on Facebook and my followers like it. Thanks for writing this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
ReplyDelete