h a l f b a k e r yNaturally, seismology provides the answer.
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When parties hust for election, they often criticise the party in power and give dire prognostications of the consequences of current policy. However, if they then win the election, no-one gets to find out if they were right. They also tend to make certain statements while in opposition concerning
what the current government are doing wrong, then fail to follow up what they said once they get voted in. Now suppose the term of a government was divided in half. In the first half, they must follow the policies of the former government as they understand them and have portrayed them, thereby providing evidence for or against their claims. In the other half, they get to undo everything they did in the first half by pursuing their own policies as stated while in opposition - not a published manifesto, what they actually said, for whatever reason. We still get full terms of government pursuing the policies we voted for (insofar as we do anyway), just deferred by half a term, so it remains as democratic as it ever was. In the meantime, the public gets to judge if the party was right. Moreover, if the previous government's policies proved to have popular results, the current government then loses out when it reverses everything, which it's committed itself to do a couple of years previously. It also stops the government from simply saying one thing in opposition and doing something else once elected - well, strictly speaking, a couple of years later. Therefore, what the politicians say when they're in opposition can be trusted as it constitutes their actual manifesto.
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Isn't this exactly what the current government did when they first got elected in 1997? That turned out really well, didn't it! |
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They did the first half but not the second. |
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sorta mitigates the practice of voting in parties whose policies you're onboard with and voting out those whose you're not. [-] |
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Maybe i'm missing something because i'm not enamoured of any of their policies, but i often like what parties say when they're in opposition. |
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I guess I'm less curious than you are about what might happen if the people i didn't vote for got elected. Since political action isn't generally meant to be a matter of chance (it shouldn't be, the "we had no idea" argument is only for the idiot majority) the results are actually stunningly predictable. Good governance reflects the interests and expressed will of the constituents, poor governance is influenced by the conflicting and contradictory input of moneyed interests and political mongering. A good government would be boringly predictable, a poor government produces smoke and mirrors to make it seem less to blame for not following the interests of constituents. This idea does not resolve the fact that the reason why we don't seem to get what we voted for, or the government seems to act ineffectually, isn't due to chaos or randomness but simple underhanded manipulation. |
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There is a huge incentive to follow a straw manifesto that completely screws up the economy. The "real world test" would be far more convincing to the idiot masses than ordinary campaigning but the economy would be screwed for half the time. |
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Bungston says Eggs Benedict would be good for breakfast. But, I, 19thly say they would be bad, and not just a little bad, but Bad. I am in charge of breakfast, and so as proof that I am in the right, I have made you some Eggs Benedict. Here you go. Have a taste. HAH! SEE! SEE! What did I tell you! That Bungston is ignant and his momma dresses him funny. He doesn't know squiddly squat about breakfast. |
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OK, now a real breakfast. I am going to cook you up some scrapple on toast you're going to love. Seriously! |
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