**Do you truly believe that because a majority of Americans think one way that should make it the law? **
'less I’m mistaken, that’s exactly the way it works.
'cept in the Senate, where it is possible that the representatives of a minority of Americans (take the least populous 26 states) can block anything from becoming law. Smart guys, those Founding Fathers.
'cept in the Senate, where it is possible that the representatives of a minority of Americans (take the least populous 26 states) can block anything from becoming law.
Yes, of course there are checks and balances. But broadly speaking, the majority rules. Even in the case of the Constitution.
And am I the only one who finds it ironic that the very same people who are so loathe to admit the existence of any objective, universal truths, and who claim so stridently that things like morality and rights derive from society’s current beliefs, are so often opposed to the idea that the majority opinion on a matter of morality or rights should hold sway?
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that the very same people who are so certain of the existence of objective, universal truths, and who deny so stridently that things like morality and rights derive from society’s current beliefs, are such big supporters of the idea that the majority opinion on a matter of morality or rights should hold sway (but only when it suits them)?
Probably not. I suspect there are a lot of people for whom such willful mischaracterization of their oppostition’s position is convenient.
The message has not really changed, just the medium. The standard saying is that FDR would be unelectable today because of his polio. In the past more people received their news via newspaper. Over the years newspapers have become more and more irrelevant in politics as TV, and more recently, the internet have become the mediums of choice. The resson is the quickness of the message and the response to the opponents message.
As for other countires. I am marrying an englishwoman so we have been followign the UK election. I am not an expert but i find it interesting that the UK bans TV advertsing. Most of the campaign is conductd throught he newspapers. Every candidate, it seems, has an “exclusive” interview in every paper every day.
I do find it interesting that the UK does not have a set election date. I know it would never happen here but if there was one thing I could change about our election system it would be the length of the campaign. Amazingly the UK runs it campaigns in a month. There are obviously under the wire campaigns being run all the time but nothing like it is here where we already have people running for 2008.