This is partially a response to John Emerson’s “What is populism? III” http://openleft.com/diary/1557…
Let’s side step the issue of populism
since the groups that dislike it aren’t going to change by knowing more about it, and since, by your own admission, they have an interest in maintaining their hatred of it. I just would like the country to be governed in everyone’s best interests and not just the interest of business. Do the tea baggers offer this. Nope. They are dogmatic free market fundamentalists in most cases so I am not interested in them.
I know third parties cannot do anything more than spoil, but the spoiler affect can be used strategically against bad democrats. If the 10 percent nader affect were utilized against the worst corporatists,in 5 years, the corporatists will be exercised from the democratic party. Let’s start something like a “strategic liberalism party” and use the spoiler affect to purge the democrats of corporatist candidates. The problem with the greens is that they ran even against good dems like Paul Wellstone! A “strategic liberalism party” or a “real democratic party” wouldn’t make that mistake.
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n/t
over and over and expecting a different result. I don’t know the answer, but I do know that what we’re doing is a waste of time.
Not true. You’re focusing too much on the presidency.
This diary is interesting only because the left tends to ignore the potential usefulness of the spoiler effect (although I personally wouldn’t use it this way). However, there are hundreds of third party members elected at the local and state level across the country.
There’s a new national progressive party forming over the next year or so. Look into that.
Global warming is all about CO2 levels in the ice cores.
What about the berylium 10 levels?
The iridium levels?
The gold levels?
How does all of it agree with other related scientific theories and records?