Hi Eric, re: "Where the f. is the Green Party or something like that in the US???" the short answer is that the system is structured so as to make a third party effectively impossible. We would need to adopt a different electoral system for it to be feasible.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM <nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org> wrote: > Send nettime-l mailing list submissions to > nettime-l@mail.kein.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > nettime-l-requ...@mail.kein.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > nettime-l-ow...@mail.kein.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nettime-l digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: why is it so quiet (in the US) (Eric Kluitenberg) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2020 10:50:25 +0100 > From: Eric Kluitenberg <e...@xs4all.nl> > To: nettime-l <nettim...@mx.kein.org> > Subject: Re: <nettime> why is it so quiet (in the US) > Message-ID: <34dbcc00-702a-4e31-803b-89ec4876e...@xs4all.nl> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > HI Ted, all, > > Fascinating discussion in ominous times.. > > > On 16 Nov 2020, at 04:02, tbyfield <tbyfi...@panix.com> wrote: > > > > The US is breaking down, so it's not at all surprising that some of its > language for describing the world would as well. > > From a continental European perspective I?m watching this spectacle (don?t > know what else to call it, without immediately invoking Debord and beyond), > and I?m not well enough informed to have any definite reading, but my > impression is not that the US is ?breaking down?. Much rather it seems that > the US is embroiled in a profound political crisis that plays out on many > different levels. > > For non-UK Europeans this whole electoral system tied to voting districts > and the ?first-past-the post? principle does not make much sense, nor does > the two party (Republicrat) party system, where none of the other political > parties that do exist across the US get represented in the legislature. > > Despite the important consideration that much of ?democracy? happens > outside the formal legislative institutions (i.e. issue-based displacement > of politics, freedom of assembly, the right to strike, referenda, and more > spontaneous and/or affect driven forms of assembly), implying that we > should not get trapped in a hyper-focus on the formal institutions, still > at the moment when these formal institutions enter into a state of crisis, > as is apparent now in the US, this warrants attention. At the very least > these formal institutions should be able to guarantee these other > ?democratic? or civil rights to be exercised extra-institutionally. > > What this signals to me, from my limited Eurocentric (male / straight, > etc.) perspective is an urgent need for institutional reform. At the very > least some form of proportional representation in the voting system and a > much lower threshold for different collective political actors to enter the > legislature. Just to ask the most obvious question: ?Where the f. is the > Green Party or something like that in the US??? > > It would also allow the so-called ?populists? to enter on their own terms, > which is a good thing because then they can be confronted head on. Europe > has its own severe problems with those kinds of political movements and it > forces the mainstream to acknowledge that and do something with it before > they become a MEGA* type of movement. In NL we have seen a persistent > presence for the last 20 or so years of political actors (the biological > and political bodies changing and morphing all the time) of about 20% of > the vote of people who simply want nothing (they don?t want immigrants, > they don?t want environmental protective policies, they don?t want taxes, > the don't want lefties, they don?t want the EU, they don?t want > globalisation, they don?t want other people parking in the parking lot in > front of their house, etc etc..). > > Maybe Germany can serve as a model for the US? It also has a federal > structure and a 5% threshold for parties to enter parliament. That all > seems to work reasonably well (at least for the last 70 years). > > The other thing is this presidential system. That just does not make any > sense to me at all anymore - what is this some 21st century Leviathan? Get > rid of that, appoint some symbolical nobody and let the country be run by a > coalition of differential political groupings who can work out the best way > forward together (harmonically if possible, contestationally if necessary). > > Please people across the great pond, get your act together! > > all bests, > Eric > > p.s. - * MEGA - Make Europe Great Again > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://mx.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/attachments/20201116/456228bb/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > > End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 158, Issue 20 > ****************************************** >
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
