Out from left field.R Majority Whip Eric Cantor Loses Primary

Indie

This doesn’t seem to stand up – I mean one phenomena of the last 30 odd years has been working class and low income people voting against the own financial interests, as noted back in 2004 in the book “What’s the matter with Kansas? (Published in the UK as What’s the matter with America?) by Thomas Frank but carrying on today as can be seen in many low income supporters of right wing libertarianism, the Christian right and the Tea Party movement.

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"For decades, Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting," writes Thomas Frank in What's the Matter With Kansas. "The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their fists at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawoof toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while the millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. 'We are here,' they scream, 'to cut your taxes."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/29/working-class-voters-america-republican

http://www.examiner.com/article/how...cans-to-vote-against-their-own-best-interests

 

Indie

After WWII the US’s national debt was up to around 117% of GDP it was brought down in just 36 years less than one generation (by 1981 it was down to 32.5%) until successive right wing and neo-liberal policies (tax cuts and anti-communist military spending) from the 1980 onward increased it cumulating in the profligate spending and tax cuts of the Bush Admin. At the same time the free market ideology (deregulation, hollowing out of manufacturing and a belief that the ‘new’ markets were safe) set up the financial sector for a fall and has caused the debt to rise to around 80-90% of GDP.

2014 – 60 = 1954

Top rate tax in 1954 – 91%

Top rate capital gains – 25%

In the 1950’s CEO pay was 25-50 times that of an average worker in 2013 it was 331 times and 774 times as much as a minimum wage earner.
When the US was doing well economically and there was a huge rise in the number of the middle class was in the period from the end of WWII (1945) to the rise of neoliberal ideas (1980), when many middle and lower class incomes either stagnated or fell while the riches of wealth grew hugely.

In 1954 the 16th and 17th amendment were already 41 years old, it must have been a very bad teacher that hadn’t notice they’d been passed.

 

Do you know what the terms Political Equality, Political Liberty, and Popular Sovereignty are?

They are political science criteria, and terms that serve as indicators of whether a country is a democracy or not.

 

Well, the U.S.A. is not 'A' democracy, but a Constitutional Republic.
Although I am familiar with the three terms you mention, I must admit I am wondering just how you define and apply them relative to your views at the local, State, and Federal levels of government in the U.S.A.

 

Indie knows we have discussed this many times this is highlighted to make the point that the US doesn’t have to be very democratic at all so it can have a limited democracy similar to that in the early union when only about 10% of the wealthiest had the vote.

That fits in with the type of system indie has suggested with wealth having greater voting power so that it could block the will of the majority.

As to his views on local, State, and Federal levels of government we’ve discussed them at length a number of times and they all seem to be about increasing the power and influence of wealth criticisms he continually refuse to address let alone refute.

This is the problem I see at the moment with American politics a lot of people are promoting ideas they cannot defend in any rational way but vote for people with those deeply, deeply flawed ideas.

So to answer the question asked in the OP

I’d say its a bad thing because it looks like another victory for the irrational in US politics

 

A pew research poll just came out that said only 4 out of 10 American voters, KNOW which political party controls which branches of government, and also which bodies of the Legislative Branch.

This indicates to me, that the majority of voters don't understand which politicians or political party is more or less at fault when things get:

1. Debated

2. Tabled

3. Stuck in committee

4. Veto'd and

5. Filibustered

6. Who wrote and co-wrote certain laws/bills.



It all suggests that voters themselves are not fit to make a wise rule, and that there are times where voters, while passionate, are not gonna steer their representatives in the GOOD and self-sustaining policy votes we need for the country to survive.


The tea party republicans are a example of that because their party platform is inflexible, just listen to McDaniel's concession speech toward Cochran's win in Mississippi.

The speech he says treats " compromising" and reaching across the isle, as BAD things representatives do.

That's not the kind of 3rd part or any other extremist policies we need in any NEW political parties to gain traction in the USA.



We need not just 3 or more parties, but 3 or more MODERATE parties.

 

Monkjr


What I’ve often said is that the problem with US politics is that it doesn’t have a left pulling from the other direction.

Basically you have two major parties one that’s right of centre and another further to the right, which now has a faction in it pushing it further to the right.

But nothing seems to be pulling from left, not a third party or faction within a party.