Comments on: Local Results

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 23:29:02 +0000

The original Whigs were Scots highwaymen, whigamores, which is why I said the labels were derogatory. [My maternal grandmother was a Mullins, so I’ve heard some Irish, including toraigh.]

Your whole political system is to the left of the US, so there isn’t a good fit.

By: jamsodonnell

jamsodonnell — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 22:51:37 +0000

I suppose comparing US parties to European ones is like comparing apples and oranges although politcs moved to the right here thanks to Thatcher and 18 years of tory rule (the original tories were irish outlaws – toraigh,I kid you not!). The landscape is moving a little leftwards – the tories are moving to the centre and Blair’s successor (probably Gordon Brown) will be to his left.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 04:01:13 +0000

I used the line in the post on the race Ellroon caught about South Dakota.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 23:23:43 +0000

jams, as U.S. politics shifted to the right, a trend which I hope we’ve seen the beginning of the end of, every American left of center, and even quite a few centrists, found themselves casting about for a suitable label. It isn’t easy, and it’s certainly confusing to Europeans who haven’t spent time with our system. Hey, it’s confusing to me, too.

Being a Democrat on the leftmost edge of the Democratic Party, I often refer to myself at home as a liberal Democrat. But as I have begun commenting on international blogs (and, thanks to you, having an international readership), I have to remind myself to clarify that my party and my positions are not precisely those of the Liberal Democrats in, say, the UK. Words can be slippery things.

Bryan, the stabilization of the color scheme in media network political maps has at least one advantage: I can now say, ambiguously but unequivocally in either sense, better dead than Red! 🙂

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 22:28:12 +0000

The colours in the US were chosen for charts by the media. They used to switch every four years, but they have held steady for a while. As a Cold Warrior I have a hard time thinking of the Right as the Reds.

Both party symbols were originally derogatory, like the Whig and Tory labels, but they have always been red, white, and blue. It has only been since the Shrubbery that a party other than the Green Party, has been colour identified.

The Democratic Party doesn’t really fit the British/European party position model. It is a left wing party only because the Republicans are so far to the right. The US Greens are a much better fit for the UK Labour Party ideologically.

By: jamsodonnell

jamsodonnell — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 20:30:51 +0000

I live in a true blue area myself (ie Conservative – my MP is a rabid rightwing lunatic). I find it hard to think of red being the bad colour!

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 07:21:21 +0000

It isn’t great, but you have to keep plugging, Jack. At least my vote helped in two of the statewide races.

“Dixie Dan” is a an unknown quantity, as he has always been a “good ol’ boy” lawyer. There has been nothing proven against him. He’s just an obnoxious guy.

It’s a good thing I don’t have to deal with “Cactus Jack.” I have views about those bastards…people in Operation Murder…Pedophilia…Rescue from the activities of their members in my local area.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 07:06:50 +0000

No one is going to have to appear before a local judge named “Dixie Dan,” so we were spared one minor indignity.

We have a judge named “Cactus Jack,” which I argue is worse than “Dixie Dan.” “Cactus Jack” was a lawyer for one of the violent extremist anti-abortion groups; IIRC, it was Operation Rescue. The man he defeated was a superb jurist. I’ll match our awful judges against your awful judges any day.

All in all, though, local discomfort notwithstanding, it’s not a bad night for the republic, don’t you think?

By: Jack K.

Jack K. — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:46:24 +0000

…there was a time when I actually didn’t vote for either state-wide office or President. I call that period my “Idaho years”, a time and place where any ‘blue’ vote had the same bearing and heft that a Green vote (such as the one that is working against Jim Webb today) has in this modern 21st century era some 30 years later. I’m in the same position today, at least as the vote for my member of the House is concerned; I know of what you speak…