- Capitalism and Alternatives -

*yawn*

Posted by: Samuel Day Fassbinder ( Citizens for Mustard Greens, USA ) on August 22, 1999 at 12:19:46:

In Reply to: For N. Jaikumar, et. al. posted by Dr. Cruel on August 21, 1999 at 10:29:35:

: A response? All right. Would these little footnotes suffice?

: Popular Participation

: I would remind the reader that participation in elections in the old Soviet Union were quite high; close to 98% or so. Not voting in said elections had been made illegal by law, of course, and these laws I have heard carried substantial penalties. The old Soviet system also had single party elections, a tradition the Sandanistas followed until forced otherwise via U.N insistence and supervision. The Sandanistas then promptly lost.

SDF: This is a lie. There were seven different political parties running Presidential candidates in the 1984 election, an election deemed fair by impartial observers from the UN, the US, and around the world, an election the Sandinistas won fair and square. This is all well documented, glad you could rewrite it for us. The Sandinistas lost, in another election, in 1990, because the public was tired of having its relatives kidnapped and tortured by US-trained Somocista guerrillas, and wanted the war to end at all costs. So who was using military force to win elections?

: Access to the Ballot

: I remember libertarians getting their candidate on the ballot fairly often in my home state; the ‘Greens’ also managed to get their allotted signatures. In any case, I have always found the big, empty write-in space useful for expressing my own alternative, when none of the aspirants suited my tastes. Thus, in a sense, anyone can ‘get on the ballot’ in the U.S.

SDF: Write-in ballots are not counted, and "third parties" often find it nearly impossible to gain ballot status, depending upon the state. It's just like DC to trivialize freedom.

: Absence of Coercion

: Leftist usually get ‘coerced’ when they incite riots. This is of course what the purpose of the riot is all about. Left-wing activists have similarly been ‘coerced’ for making bombs, planning bank robberies and assassinations (of which one Ms. Davis is quite notorious), and other such ‘publicity stunts’.

SDF: Some people branded in the corporate media as "left-wingers" did those things, so all "left-wingers" do them. Was DC one of those post-WWII German imports like Werner Von Braun?

: As for the Nicaraguans: I seem to remember a failed attempt at genocide, directed at the Miskito indians in 1980. They subsequently turned from their luke-warm support for the regime to outright hostility. I have been told that the indians ‘deserved it’ …

SDF: Personally, DC? I believe NJ already explained what the conflict with the Miskito was, here on this board -- anyone actually attempting to kill US proxies as such proxies attempt to overrun their country is of course guilty of attempted genocide... I'm glad you could re-write history for the forgetful here...

Have you anything to add NJ?


Follow Ups:

The Debating Room Post a Followup