Monday, April 13, 2009
Movie Recommendation -- Split: A Divided America
A few months back, I surprised a co-worker by informing her I'm not a Democratic Party follower. I said part of the reason I'm a Kansas Democrat is because as a heavily Republican Party state, little opportunity exists for a dialogue. The only way to even attempt to have other ideas is to be a Kansas Democrat. I have very strong opinions, indeed, and some are admittedly extremist, but I know full well my ideas cannot exist now (and should they ever, I would hope they don't stick around for long) but the only way to move forward is to have ideas and talk about them. This is sadly missing from American politics.
From Wikipedia:
1) Politics is the process and conduct of decision-making for groups. Although it is usually applied to governments, political behavior is also observed in corporate, academic, religious, and other institutions.
2) Republicanism is, in a large sense, a political theory opposed to monarchy. [and] is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by other means than hereditary, often elections. An important element of Republicanism is constitutional law to limit the state's power over its citizens. Early proponents of Republicanism, such as John Milton, put emphasis on the dangers of corruption and the importance of civic virtues.
3) Classical republicanism was rather aimed against any form of tyranny, whether monarchic, aristocratic, or democratic (tyranny of the majority).
4) The phrase tyranny of the majority, used in discussing systems of democracy and majority rule, is a criticism of the scenario in which decisions made by a majority under that system would place that majority's interests so far above a minority's interest as to be comparable to tyrannical despots.
Just some thoughts that have been running through my head for a while now ...
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