On the topic of "living life as you choose," I just finished a rather interesting book by Michael Sandel, "Democracy's Discontent." Most interesting as a history of political philosophy and political economy from the earliest days of the Republic, it fails somewhat in its larger task because Sandel shies away from the implications of his own conclusions.
In a nutshell, "living life as you choose" is insufficient, because when taken as the guiding philosophy of a democratic nation it leads to a depletion in the civic virtues that allow citizens to govern themselves—particularly self-discipline, civic engagement, and a concern with the community.
You will perhaps be interested to know that this philosophy only really took hold in America at about the 1930s and 1940s. (Another fascinating tidbit was that when Louis Brandeis first proposed a "right to privacy," he meant a right to keep your name out of the gossip papers!)
Is he better than Obama? Eh, maybe, most of what I hate about McCain Obama is worse on.
What concerns me is that if McCain wins, he'll be in a position to do something Obama never could: Spike every effort of the Republican minority to function as an effective opposition. And he WILL, because he agrees with the Democrats on a lot of things, and will be looking to buy their cooperation on other issues. And that will be the only currency he'll have to spend that they'll be interested in.
Trying to get the least repugnant of the three Democrats elected is just a distraction from trying to hold onto enough seats in Congress to obstruct what all three of those Democrats will try to do.
But that's just rationalizing, frankly, I'm voting third party because, damn it, the 'lesser' evil ain't nearly lesser enough this time around for me to stomach voting for. At some point winning isn't an option anymore, but you can still avoid being complicit.
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JS-Kit/Echo comments for article at http://smallestminority.blogspot.com/2008/05/quote-of-day_28.html (5 comments)
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On the topic of "living life as you choose," I just finished a rather interesting book by Michael Sandel, "Democracy's Discontent." Most interesting as a history of political philosophy and political economy from the earliest days of the Republic, it fails somewhat in its larger task because Sandel shies away from the implications of his own conclusions.
In a nutshell, "living life as you choose" is insufficient, because when taken as the guiding philosophy of a democratic nation it leads to a depletion in the civic virtues that allow citizens to govern themselves—particularly self-discipline, civic engagement, and a concern with the community.
You will perhaps be interested to know that this philosophy only really took hold in America at about the 1930s and 1940s. (Another fascinating tidbit was that when Louis Brandeis first proposed a "right to privacy," he meant a right to keep your name out of the gossip papers!)
Is he better than Obama? Eh, maybe, most of what I hate about McCain Obama is worse on.
What concerns me is that if McCain wins, he'll be in a position to do something Obama never could: Spike every effort of the Republican minority to function as an effective opposition. And he WILL, because he agrees with the Democrats on a lot of things, and will be looking to buy their cooperation on other issues. And that will be the only currency he'll have to spend that they'll be interested in.
Trying to get the least repugnant of the three Democrats elected is just a distraction from trying to hold onto enough seats in Congress to obstruct what all three of those Democrats will try to do.
But that's just rationalizing, frankly, I'm voting third party because, damn it, the 'lesser' evil ain't nearly lesser enough this time around for me to stomach voting for. At some point winning isn't an option anymore, but you can still avoid being complicit.
Wait, there are *two* political parties running?!
Yeah, Russ: Socialist and Democratic.
What Brett said.
Note: All avatars and any images or other media embedded in comments were hosted on the JS-Kit website and have been lost; references to haloscan comments have been partially automatically remapped, but accuracy is not guaranteed and corrections are solicited.
If you notice any problems with this page or wish to have your home page link updated, please contact John Hardin <jhardin@impsec.org>