{"id":406,"date":"2009-10-28T12:46:40","date_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/10\/must-pagans-be-ultra-liberals.html"},"modified":"2009-10-28T12:46:40","modified_gmt":"2009-10-28T12:46:40","slug":"must-pagans-be-ultra-liberals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/10\/must-pagans-be-ultra-liberals.html","title":{"rendered":"Must Pagans Be “Ultra Liberals”?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This issue has
\nrepeatedly arisen on this blog, perhaps because people think, mistakenly, that
\nI am an ‘ultra liberal.’  <\/span>The issue
\narose most recently as a question for the special Beliefnet post I am
\ndeveloping.  <\/span>I won’t use it for
\nthat purpose – there are more basic issues pertaining to Pagans as a spiritual
\ncommunity and I have limited space – but it raises interesting questions. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No, one need not
\nbe a super liberal, or even a liberal to be Pagan.  <\/span>I am not sure, but I suspect Gerald Gardner rather liked the
\nBritish empire.  <\/span>Historically
\nPagans have been all over the map politically.  <\/span>But today Pagans voting Republican are like Jews voting
\nNazi.  <\/span>This was not true in the old
\nEisenhower or Goldwater Republican Party, but it is true today.  <\/span>The Sauronic base and its leaders
\ncontrol the party.<\/p>\n

Two Party Crisis<\/b><\/p>\n

We have no real
\nchoice today because unfortunately the US is only a two party system.  <\/span>This is mostly a result of requiring
\nplurality rather than majority elections. Plurality elections means whoever
\ngets the most votes wins, even if that is 30%, so long as it’s more than
\nanybody else.  <\/span>This logic makes it
\nalmost impossible for new parties to arise unless the old ones collapse over a
\ncrisis, as happened only once in this country, just before the Civil War.<\/p>\n

The ‘third’
\nparties – Libertarians, Conservatives, Greens, and so on – are mostly ego trips
\nfor their members and rarely anything more.  <\/span>We can vote for them sanely only when there is no chance the
\nmain party farthest from them will benefit as a result, or when we can safely
\nlet that other party win.  <\/span>We do
\nnot really have that luxury today.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the
\nRepublican Party will collapse, and a sane party will rise in its place.  <\/span>Or maybe sanity will return.  <\/span>Then, even if we disagree with it, we
\ndon’t have to live in fear of its triumph.  <\/span>For that’s what a democracy is all about – a loyal
\nopposition that respects the rules and traditions of the system and a winning
\ngroup that does so as well.  <\/span>Both
\nput the rules ahead of winning. 
\n<\/span>Republicans did not respect the rules when in power, nor do they respect
\nthem when out of power.  <\/span>They have removed
\nthemselves from the democratic process whenever they have had the chance,
\npreferring to rule by tyrannical will instead.  <\/span>Until they reform, neither Pagans nor loyal Americans in
\ngeneral can intelligently vote for them at the national level.  <\/span>It would be like hiring a child
\nmolester as your baby sitter.<\/p>\n

If the American
\ndemocracy fails to survive its present crisis, and I would not bet either way
\nat the moment, future historians will likely blame our two party system as a
\nbig part of the cause.  <\/span>When one
\nparty is taken over by idiots and bigots, intelligent and caring citizens have
\nlittle choice.  <\/span>Yet this means that
\nthe Democrats can take them for granted, and sell their votes to the corporate crooks
\nthat offer them the best deal.  <\/span>A
\ngreat many do.  <\/span>So our electoral
\nchoice is military oligarchy or military nutjobs and ‘Christian’ Taliban.<\/p>\n

Contesting
\nPrimaries<\/b><\/p>\n

Competition is
\nnecessary or else incumbents become lazy or corrupt.<\/p>\n

There is one
\narea where democratic room still exists: Democratic primaries.  <\/span>Primaries are more important now than
\nperhaps ever before in our history. Democratic primaries need to be contested,
\ngiving Democratic voters have a choice when the incumbent is a tool of the
\ncorporate\/military oligarchy. <\/span><\/p>\n

I just learned
\nthat 93% of MoveOn’s members voted not to support incumbent Democrats<\/a> that do
\nnot support the public option in health reform. <\/a>
\nThis is an important start, for it means they will support primary challengers
\nto the likes of Max Baucus and other tools of the ‘insurance’ industry.  <\/span>But it is only a start.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Another approach would be for Pagans who make political contributions to give only to specific candidates or organizations who support candidates in keeping with their values rather than to national party organizations.  The national party organizations almost always only support incumbents in contested primaries.  They will rarely if ever be agents for significant reform.  <\/p>\n

Supporting primary challenges must
\nbecome standard operating procedure for all Americans concerned for the future
\nof their country, Pagans included.<\/p>\n

A Long Term
\nApproach<\/b> <\/p>\n

In the long run
\nwe can avoid these perils if we amend state constitutions – which in time will lead
\nto a national amendment – to require majority vote for winning office, with
\nrunoffs when no one gets a majority. 
\n<\/span>That way we can vote for third parties without in the process putting
\nthe party we dislike most into office. 
\n<\/span>Until then, so long as one of the parties is as vicious as the
\nRepublicans, democracy is in peril.<\/p>\n

That today’s
\nthird parties do not push for initiatives for majority vote in states that have
\nthe initiative process is proof that their leaders are in it for ego, not for
\nthe good of the country.  <\/span>When they
\nstart pushing for majority vote, then they will be worth taking seriously. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This issue has repeatedly arisen on this blog, perhaps because people think, mistakenly, that I am an ‘ultra liberal.’  The issue arose most recently as a question for the special Beliefnet post I am developing.  I won’t use it for that purpose – there are more basic issues pertaining to Pagans as a spiritual community…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-pagan-culture"],"yoast_head":"\nMust Pagans Be "Ultra Liberals"? - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/10\/must-pagans-be-ultra-liberals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Must Pagans Be "Ultra Liberals"? 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