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Author Topic: American Election Megathread - It's Over  (Read 763549 times)

Leafsnail

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9465 on: November 13, 2012, 06:37:43 pm »

It might be a white nationalist thing, incidentally.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/12/the_awakening

It's sketchy but they're definitely having some kind of "push" to unite with regular wingnuts (the less racist kind) and break away.  This whole "spam change.org with lots of near identical petitions" could be part of the campaign.
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Mego

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9466 on: November 13, 2012, 06:39:28 pm »

Apparently they're up to ~36 states "wanting" to secede. Let's make that 50. And they can all form a NEW nation and have new elections ;D

This.

I thought Donald Trump wanted to march on Washington.
More like a general Revolution. He doesn't need to stand for something coherent though.
 
On that note: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/11/13/half-a-million-sign-petition-demanding-macys-drop-donald-trump/ more then a few petitioners on whitehouse.org/

Saying that things are wrong and he can make them better, but not specifying details? Why does that sound familiar?

Oh, right, a dude just lost the presidential election with that platform.

GreatJustice

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9467 on: November 13, 2012, 07:01:54 pm »

The burden of proof sure as hell is not the way you say it is.  Democracy does not equal having a majority gets whatever the heck you want.  It is rule of laws, both written and unwritten.

"Democracy is what I say it is!"

A secession, even one endorsed by a majority of the seceding area, would be a flagrant violation of many agreements and obligations entered into in good faith.  For starters the substantial unionist minority would be grossly infringed upon, being deprived the right to maintain their citizenship in the status quo, the most fundamental right we have.


Yet the substantial separatist majority is grossly infringed upon by not being allowed to secede.

One could just as easily say the substantial upper to upper-middle class minority is grossly infringed upon when they get taxed at the whims of the poor, or the substantial lumberjack/industry related minorities are grossly infringed upon when environmental standards are brought into being.

Certainly, they could maintain their citizenship. Ever heard of dual citizenship?
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It's not incumbent on us to say why the majority can't do whatever they want, it's incumbent on you to say why the minority should be made to suffer so greatly.

Uh, what?
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Add onto that the massive breach of faith with the rest of the country which has faithfully honored the rights of the area that now wants out.

Yeah, those dirty secessionists! The rest of the Union faithfully didn't enslave, pillage, or otherwise harm them! How dare they try to leave!

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There would be nothing democratic about such an action.  Democracy empowers the citizens, not makes them victims to extralegal processes that overturn the civil order on the flimsiest of grounds.  If you want a democratic secession then it needs to be built on democratic grounds.  Show systematic disenfranchisement.  Show there is not fair recourse through the existing channels.  Show that the breach of good faith lies not with those seceding.  If you can not show these things then what you are proposing is not democracy, it's a power grab.

What you're describing is not democracy. Allow me:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy
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a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

Democracy is not necessarily moral, correct, or ethical. The majority is not always right. Whether they want to secede because they have a deep seated distrust of the federal government, because they were victimized by the federal government, or because they think the flag is ugly is utterly irrelevant. Certainly, the separation of powers exists to prevent mob rule, but that is hardly a bulletproof method of ensuring no minorities are harmed if the past two centuries are anything to go by.

Seems to me like you're just assigning positive values to Democracy and arbitrarily deciding what is or isn't democratic (when it's fairly clear cut generally).
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The classical liberals who you libertarians claim to love all wrote about how you don't go rewriting the social contract on a whim.  Even the downright anarchistic Rousseau, who said that people have the right to leave the state, said that they can not desert their obligations when you do so.  A liberal society is not a society where laws don't constrain our actions.  It's a society where bad laws don't constrain our actions.  So if you claim you should be able to ignore the law without first showing that the law is unjust then you are rejecting the fundamental principles of democratic government.

Rousseau was not a classical liberal. Try again. Under both classical liberal and libertarian views, there is no such thing as a social contract.

Besides that, there are classical liberals that actually did support infinite secession on the principle of self-ownership, making your point invalid.

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tl;rd Read any political philosophy from the past 400 years and get back to us, thx.

tl;dr Read the dictionary and find out what "Democracy" means
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mainiac

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9468 on: November 13, 2012, 07:05:15 pm »

"Democracy is what I say it is!"

No, democracy is what centuries of political philosophers say it is.  But hey, nice job structuring your central argument in the form of puerile parody.

Besides that, there are classical liberals that actually did support infinite secession on the principle of self-ownership, making your point invalid.

Well Locke did not.  Rousseau did not.  Madison did not.  Adam Smith did not.  J.S. Mill did not.  This is off the top of my head.  So who is it that you think is a better standard bearer for classical liberalism then these guys?
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 07:13:50 pm by mainiac »
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Leafsnail

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9469 on: November 13, 2012, 07:25:23 pm »

You're talking to him.
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Eagle_eye

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9470 on: November 13, 2012, 07:25:55 pm »

I'm not sure Mill is really a classical liberal. Didn't he advocate for animal rights and labor laws?
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mainiac

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9471 on: November 13, 2012, 07:30:18 pm »

You're talking to him.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize we'd agreed to stop?

I'm not sure Mill is really a classical liberal. Didn't he advocate for animal rights and labor laws?

Yeah, that's the funny thing about classical liberals people don't realize.  They weren't 'guvmint sux, liberty rules!', they advocated for a sensible new order.

It's important to understand the context they were coming from to see why they came off that way.  In their day all the public works and education and aid for the sick and poor and support of commerce that classical liberal advocated were a tiny part of government (not that they all advocated for all these things, just listing all the biggest stuff various ones advocated for).  Most of what government did was a bloated military establishment, goodies for the nobles and screwing over minorities.  So the classical liberals were very much against government, as it existed in their time.  (Well Mill was towards the end so less so as it existed in his time.)  They wanted a smaller government because if you got rid of the stuff they didn't want and added in the stuff they did the result would be a smaller government.  But they usually wanted the government to be doing other stuff, not just no stuff.  Exceptions did exist of course, such as Jefferson.
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« Last Edit: February 10, 1988, 03:27:23 pm by UR MOM »
mainiac is always a little sarcastic, at least.

GreatJustice

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9472 on: November 13, 2012, 08:03:48 pm »

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Well Locke did not.  Rousseau did not.  Madison did not.  Adam Smith did not.  J.S. Mill did not.  This is off the top of my head.  So who is it that you think is a better standard bearer for classical liberalism then these guys?

Bastiat did. De Molinari did. Spooner did.

I'm still puzzled as to why you consider Rousseau to be a classical liberal. Locke most certainly was in support of secession, while Mill wasn't exactly a classical liberal either (though certainly he is moreso than Rousseau).
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No, democracy is what centuries of political philosophers say it is.  But hey, nice job structuring your central argument in the form of puerile parody.

Having trouble with that dictionary?

You still haven't defined it, I notice. Perhaps because just about every political philosopher has at least a marginally different definition of what "democracy" is. It's come to be a bit of a meaningless word when not used literally.
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The person supporting regenerating health, when asked why you can see when shot in the eye justified it as 'you put on an eyepatch'. When asked what happens when you are then shot in the other eye, he said that you put an eyepatch on that eye. When asked how you'd be able to see, he said that your first eye would have healed by then.

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Aqizzar

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9473 on: November 13, 2012, 08:10:51 pm »

Nope nope nope, nope nope nope nope.

There will be no Dictionary Arguments in this thread.  As a matter of fact, looking back over the last few crapload of pages, I'm starting to think this thread really is past its prime and time to bow out.
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penguinofhonor

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9474 on: November 13, 2012, 08:22:35 pm »

If you lock it, tell me in advance so I can post that gif of a dancing lock.
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Kogan Loloklam

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9475 on: November 13, 2012, 08:25:33 pm »

I want Texas to secede.

ANYWAY... Here's my response to the Colorado Secession petition:

Petition something something Go Away damn dirty texans!
Send it to your Colorado friends or something.
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9476 on: November 13, 2012, 08:26:08 pm »

The Many would know your will, Aqizzar. What say you of the rise of the Texas Democrats?
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Aqizzar

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9477 on: November 13, 2012, 09:10:43 pm »

The Many would know your will, Aqizzar. What say you of the rise of the Texas Democrats?

After devoting my personal time and energy to trying to get a few of them elected (mind you, not much of either), let me just say that I'll believe it when I see it.

I will add that the whole "gerrymandering" aspect probably isn't as important as it seems.  Namely because Texas, and most other Republican states, couldn't possibly be more gerrymandered than they already are, since every decade-opening year going back to 1970 has been a Republican sweep year.  And yeah, the Hispanic population is growing.  So are a lot of other populations, including conservative ones.  Texas' relatively decent economy has attracted upper-middle income people from all over the country to its suburbs for a few years, even as Texas' urban centers have swung increasingly Democratic.

Of course, part of the reason why the Texas Democratic party is the ineffective mess that it is stems from being being essentially abandoned by the national party since... well, since it became the modern Democratic party.  If ever there was a time that the national guys might see a crack to widen it would be now, when they're flush with victory and just had the power of changing demographics slapped in their faces.  Still, I wouldn't bet money on Texas sending a Democrat to the Senate or White House for another ten years at least.

The electoral fate of His Imperious Majesty Richard the First however, I'd like to think is in serious doubt.  Not that I wouldn't miss him when he's gone.
« Last Edit: November 13, 2012, 09:12:39 pm by Aqizzar »
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mainiac

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9478 on: November 13, 2012, 09:23:21 pm »

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Well Locke did not.  Rousseau did not.  Madison did not.  Adam Smith did not.  J.S. Mill did not.  This is off the top of my head.  So who is it that you think is a better standard bearer for classical liberalism then these guys?

Bastiat did. De Molinari did. Spooner did.

Well I think that's a pretty good stopping place right there.  Two different world views pretty clearly defined by disagreement over who's notions of liberty to look to.
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« Last Edit: February 10, 1988, 03:27:23 pm by UR MOM »
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Leafsnail

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Re: American Election Megathread - It's Over
« Reply #9479 on: November 13, 2012, 09:27:14 pm »

Wouldn't it be worth a major push in Texas from the national Democrat party, considering part of the problem is low Latino turnout?  It'd probably take a while for the tactic to work, but if Texas flipped that's surely the Republican party's electoral chances almost completely ruined.
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