The Fallacy of Choice

In a year where voter registration in the United States is hitting an all time high, enthusiasm for the political process is off the chart and two very interesting candidates battle it out for the right to be called President, what is happening in Britain?

Apathy. Total Political apathy. The more people learn about politics in this country the less people care. For a democracy that is not exactly an ideal situation. More people voted in the last series of that mind-numbing, intelligence sapping abortion of a TV show Big Brother than in the last General Election. That's quite depressing.

But when you stop and look at the political choices we have in Britain, it is rather understandable. Once upon a time there were three main political parties. The Conservative Party (also known as The Tories) who represented the upper class and the rich, The Labour Party who represented the working class and the less well off, and the Liberal Democrats who were sort of in the middle, although they never really had any chance of getting into power.

Now there are still three main parties. The Liberal Democrats (who still haven't a hope in Hell of actually winning), The Conservatives and New Labour. While the Conservatives held power, Labour were the party who stood up and fought for a more equal society, to give the working men and women a fair deal in life. The sad part about it was that they never held office. I guess the political system in Britain favoured the rich. So in 1997 they had a brainwave: New Labour. It basically promised a new direction for the party and, if they got in, the country. They had a fresh faced young leader, Tony Blair, and took advantage of people's dissatisfaction with the corruption, ineptitude and sleaze of the Tory party in what was a landslide election victory.

How power changes people. The New Labour government then took a sharp turn away from the left and headed for centrist policies. Or so they said. It just seemed that they were a new Tory party dressed in Labour red. The rich continued to benefit and could now vote guilt-free for a party that would hand them every advantage. The now Prime Minister Tony Blair led the country into an unjust war on Iraq based on intelligence that had been exaggerated. One of these intelligence claims was that Saddam Hussein had Weapons of Mass Destruction and that they could be activated and detonated within 45 minutes. So we stood alongside the USA in the invasion and no weapons were found. We had something in common with America. Our highest ranking politician had lied to us in order to curry favour for a war that had no real justification and ignored the millions of people who disagreed with them. Wonderful.


All this time, the man in charge of the UK's finances was Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown. The man who so desperately wanted to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister. After what must have felt like eternity to Brown he finally got his wish. Blair resigned, handing over the reigns to Brown. Because of Blair's lack of popularity Brown's approval rating was rather high, yet an unelected Prime Minister refused to call an election. Probably a bad idea. Since taking charge there was flash flooding across the country which Brown's administration reacted to poorly, and the economy went into meltdown with the bank Northern Rock going under, with HBOS and Bradford & Bingley also in serious trouble. His approval ratings are in the toilet.

Surely the American slogan will work for us too? Time for a change! Umm, well no. The problem is that should Labour lose the next election, those likely to replace them in office would be just as bad, if not worse. David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, is trying to market himself as a fresh faced young leader taking his party and, should he get in, the country in a new direction. I swear I've seen this before. How did that work out last time? Oh yes, not well.

The other alternative is a real long shot. The Liberal Democrats. At the last General Election they had an interesting leader, with very new policies. Granted, he had an alcohol problem and they had no real chance of getting in anyway, but still. Now the leader is a man named Nick Clegg. I am sure he is a clone of David Cameron. He is utterly uninteresting and the Lib Dem policies are just as forgettable.

So there you have it. The British public cannot stand the political leadership at the moment, but the alternatives are just as bad. This could be more a comment on the British public's apparent insatiable need to complain, but I suspect this lack of real choice is the reason for such political apathy.

"Are you going to vote at the next election?"
"No, what difference would it make? They're all the same"

Sadly, there may be a point to that...

The "Choices"

The Nature of Choice Part 2

Doesn't everyone look forward to this time? Every four years in the United States of America the political ads start running and every second piece of news concerns the race for President. Polls change every day, which means that the media can have a new story every day. A candidate says something that they think is harmless but one commentator interprets it as offensive in some way and boom! A scandal. It's gold. How can you not love it?
Ok, maybe that was slightly sarcastic but in all honesty I do enjoy following the Presidential campaigns unfold.

This year seems more heated than ever. The candidates are being scrutinized for every statement, every misstatement and every action. Then in come the Vice Presidential nominees. I touched a little bit on the selection of Sarah Palin in the last entry but I do feel there is more to be said. While she does appeal to the base of the Republican Party, others also claim that she appeals to women voters. White women voters to be precise. After the Republican National Convention the polls indicated that there had been a major swing towards the McCain/Palin ticket with white women. The idea is that her selection would appeal to supporters of Hillary Clinton who were still dissatisfied that she didn't make the Democratic ticket. I am happy to say that the swing only appears to have been temporary. I was very worried that John McCain's campaign seemed to think that women were so suggestible that they would vote for him simply because he had a woman on the ticket. Therein madness lies.

Palin's policies could not be further removed from Clinton's. Palin genuinely believes in creationism and thinks that it should be taught in public schools with equal merit as evolution. She also opposed abortion in all cases. That's right: all cases. If you get raped and fall pregnant, if Palin was in charge, you're keeping it. This seems to indicate a very blurred line between the separation of church and state which is supposed to be key to American government. Palin also, rather bizarrely for a woman, opposes Equal Pay for Equal work. Right now American women make roughly 77 cents for a every dollar a man makes. McCain's answer to this imbalance? That women need more education and training. Palin must be one of the most anti-women politicians that I have ever come across. As an American woman, it is imperative to vote for who will make things better for you, not who you can relate to.

Look at it another way. John McCain is a 72 year old, multiple time cancer survivor. I would never wish death on anyone but say that he was to die in office, that would make Sarah Palin the President of the United States. That would be a pretty dangerous situation. She appears to be years behind the rest of the Western world in her belief system and would bring that to Washington. Abortions made illegal in all circumstances would force women to seek dangerous and illegal means of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. The abstinance only sex education that Palin supports would lead to an increase of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Young people are always going to have sex, but without a proper education in regards to the risks, these things would all increase in numbers. The risk of that happening are not worth taking in my estimation.

Going slightly back to the abortion subject for a moment, I would like to bring in the title of this very entry: The Nature of Choice. Palin's teenage daughter Bristol (still in high school) has fallen pregnant. One can only speculate that it may have been a result of the desire to have sex (which most adolescents feel) coupled with an abstinance only sex education. That is, however, beside the point. The media have said that they will leave the issue of Palin's daughter alone, but the language of the press release about it leads me to think that maybe it should be talked about, if only from a policy standpoint. The McCain/Palin campaign released a statement saying that Bristol had made the decision to keep the child and marry the father. I am not judging Bristol at all, but McCain and Palin's anti-abortion stance does make their use of the word "decision" interesting. In order to make a decision, one must be presented with a choice. Sarah Palin would gladly allow her daughter to decide about her pregnancy, but would also gladly take that choice away from every other woman in America. If Bristol wants to keep it, I wish her all the best of luck. She has made a choice and I applaud that. It is choice that makes us free as a society, and the McCain/Palin ticket wants to take away that choice from American women. Something about that just seems wrong.

The Nature of Choice Part 1

Election '08! Billed as the biggest Presidential Election of our lifetime. It has already been a historic race to the White House, and it is not over yet (much to the chagrin of many people who claim to have no interest in the matter). Once again the Democrat and Republican parties are doing anything they can to win your all important vote. They say that every vote counts and I agree, especially this year with the race being so close.

Choice is a wonderful thing, and that is what the American public has this coming November. The Republicans have nominated Vietnam veteran and twenty six year Senator John McCain of Arizona for the highest office in the land. He in turn has named Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate.
Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has become the first African American to be nominated for President by a major party as the Democratic choice. His running mate is long time Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

Some people have claimed that Barack Obama's nomination and popularity is merely a result of him being the first African American to run for President as part of a major party. That seems to diminish his accomplishment. Yes, it is a big deal but no, that is not the reason for his popularity. There are a lot of African Americans who no doubt feel a cultural connection to Obama and perhaps sense that maybe the tide is turning for them in American society.

Those, however, are not the only people who have attached themselves to the Obama campaign. Obama's message of change seems to have resonated with lots of Americans who are tired of the old Washington system and the current Republican administration. The way which special interest lobbyists would donate vast sums of money towards a candidate with the expectation that they would be granted special favors. Obama's campaign funds have come overwhelmingly from the American public. He has stated numerous times that special interests have not contributed to his campaign and would not run his White House. I applaud that sentiment.

Obama's policies seem to make a lot of sense for the majority of the American people. Abolishing the Bush administration's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and giving tax cuts to 95% of American working families is a much better way to stimulate the economy. Considering the NY Stock Market has experienced the worst crisis since the Wall Street Crash of 1929 Obama's consistent position still makes the most sense in dealing with the consequences.

John McCain, on the other hand, has a totally different approach. He willingly accepts special interest funding and even has several major Washington lobbyists working on his campaign. It would not be too cynical to think that a McCain administration would work more for those special interests than the wider American public. Despite this, after a week of public gaffes in relation to the economy (restating that the fundementals are strong, saying as President he would have fired the head of the SEC, having a spokesman claim he invented the Blackberry etc) he accused Barack Obama of being part of the special interest system of Washington that led to the crisis. This is also after months of claiming that Obama had not been in Washington long enough to run for President.

That leads me nicely to my next point. Experience. While Obama, a junior Senator, was talking about changing the way Washington works (as a relative outsider, a new perspective seems like it would help) John McCain was campaigning on the idea that he had the necessary experience to be President. For months this was the case. The main argument against Obama's message of change. Then McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate. What's that sound? It's McCain shooting his own argument in the foot. As a first term Alaska Governor (the 47th most populous State in the Union) Palin's lack of experience makes any argument against Obama in that respect worthless. She only got a passport last year, has never met a foriegn head of state and her only political experience before becoming Governor was Mayor of Wasilla, AK. A town with approximately 9,000 people in it.

Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's running mate speaks volumes about how the McCain campaign is being run. It seems it is not being run by McCain. In order to clinch his party's nomination McCain had to abandon a lot of his previously held positions and policies. Apparently McCain wanted to select Joe Liebermann as his Vice Presidential running mate, yet he picked a Governor with little experience whom he had only met once prior to selection. That seems odd. Then you look at Palin's positions. She appeals directly to the Republican base. She is a gun-toting, Iraq War-supporting, abortion-opposing creationist. So instead of defying his party and picking a running mate that he believed in his heart would be a competant VP, he caved in to the demands of his party and selected Palin. Despite this and abandoning a lot of his previously held convictions McCain still refers to himself as a maverick. Don't laugh, some people still buy it.

To be continued...

A different method of killing time...

I will stand here and admit (well, I'm actually sitting but that seems inconsequential at this point) that I was taken in by the MySpace phenomenon. Seems like such a long time ago, doesn't it? With the arrival and surging popularity of Facebook, the former seems obsolete and uncool. I always maintained that I only signed up to those social networking sites in order to remain in easy contact with friends, not to branch out and aquire new ones. Sadly, when it came to MySpace I was suckered in. I would spend time wondering what layout would look good, what to call myself, which pictures to upload or who would be in my Top 8. So sad. I began to see the error of my ways as Facebook came along. This site had more of my friends on it, and needed much less effort to maintain, so I jumped ship - so to speak.

MySpace had become totally irrelevant. If I wanted to contact any friends online all of my MySpace friends had Facebook accounts. What was the use of maintaining it? I did have one reason. The blog. MySpace gave me somewhere to get my thoughts out into the open. Even though I suspect nobody really read them it was a great way for me to express myself. It didn't really matter if anyone read them. I was not doing it to become MySpace's next top blogger.

After a while I merely gave up and got rid of the account. Didn't seem to make too much of a difference initially. It was one less thing to think about. I did however, begin to miss having a space in which to post my thoughts. The Notes on Facebook were certainly not the place to do it. So here I am. None of that Top Friends nonsense, photographs that no one cares about or leaving comments for people. Just a space for me to get some thoughts written down.

People are more than welcome to read these posts, but if not, I will not be upset.