BACKBONE: Howard Dean says: Vote the Senate health-care 'reform' DOWN

POSTED BY: SignyM
UPDATED: Sunday, September 14, 2025 23:09
VIEWED: 6438
PAGE 6 of 8

Hmm. I'm not sure you could really say it's the US's bicameral system that's the problem.

Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, Pakistan all have at least a semi-presidential bicameral system, can't be said to have a parliament, and yet have multiple parties. So it's not just the American system, and as far as I was aware, don't the Brits have two major parties with a few third parties no one takes seriously?

Multiple parties only work to varying degrees. Parties and individual causes tend to get absorbed by bigger parties or coalition governments, until you're back to two and us versus them. I think the American two parties (though there have ALMOST been three at times, I think there was a populist party movement sometime in the 19th century) are pretty firmly established to have been from the beginning, though I don't think it necessarily had to go this way. But that's mostly because the Federalists were douchebags who knew how to manipulate the public, and knew how they could use "us versus them" mentality.

EDIT: Brits were commonly divided between the Conservatives and the New Labour. The Liberal Democrats are a relatively recent upstart. I predict they'll be absorbed by or take over the New Labour, and then they're back down to two.

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I'll get back with you later today - I hope. Some of your facts are not quite right. But if I don't post today, which is a possibility - please put this back up top tomorrow.

THANKS !

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Silence is consent.

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I'd like to find out in more detail what are some of the things you have in mind, if you don't mind posting them.

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When it comes to the actual implementation and how things would work of ideas, I don't have much experience. But, healthcare. One thing that could be done locally, if you removed or greatly diminished the power of the insurance industries, you could have something like cooperatives based on the model of small scale credit-unions.

And also charitable organizations to cover people who can't afford being in the co-op. There are such charitable medical organizations even now, within the U.S. borders, but they don't get much attention. It's a pity, really. They work a lot like doctor's without borders.

Maybe it's just because I live in Utah that I think charity could work. Say what you will about the Mormons (and I've said my share myself), but when one of their members are in trouble, they rally to incredible lengths. It's funny, because most of them are adamant Republicans, and you might hear them scoffing about welfare... Well, what was that dinner and all those cookies you took over to poor retired widow Mrs. Burton a few nights ago? Their religion is practically a state sponsored welfare program. *shake head* But, it works, and there really isn't a lot of lawmaking that goes into it.

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Byte, what I heard a while ago is that the ins. co's monopoly status makes small co-ops or actually any OTHER insurance company start-ups virtually impossible. It's been long enough ago that I forget the reasons, tho' I do remember one was their influence in local government.

Bingo Rue!

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I think it's b/c in this 'winner take all' system being a third party candidate is almost like not being there. You will never ever have a chance to get your agenda through. So you pick one side, or the other, whatever you can stomach the best, and try to ride the wave.

I think, in other words, that's it's a structural property of our system, and not just a matter of habit.

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and

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If we could dissolve the ruling government at any time - if we had a parliamentary sytem - coalitions would be vital to holding power.

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That's exactly what I believe.

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