151–160 of 168 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
SPD, Greens, FDP also looks like a possibility. A government without CDU would be unprecedented in Germany. And IMHO not a bad thing.
Only unprecedented during the previous decade, but SPD/Greens were in power from 1998 to 2005.
Very interesting, seems to be the opposite of what’s happening in the US.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a respond to a ultra-right-wing party AfD which "hangs greens" in some districts.
The "hang Nazis" posters are from the previous election [1], while "hang greens" is a new slogan from this cycle [2]. If I had to guess, I'd say that the party was hoping for the "hang greens" posters to be banned so that they could whine about the "hang nazis" posters being unfairly allowed. Not AfD by the way, but "Der Dritte Weg", a party that I learned about through the Wahl-O-Mat. [1] https://www.welt.de/regiona…
Anyway, a Red-Red-Green result would be just as much an insult as some posters. I wish I had money on the SPD, their resurgence seems to have come out nowhere. I was expecting a big rise in Green numbers after the terrible flooding earlier in the year...
I hope not too many people base their voting decision on the amount of similarity they have in their answers with parties. The way questions are phrased do not always give parties a way to answer (Yes/No/Neutral) in the same way. As an example, 2 parties could both say No to a higher Co2-tax, but one of them does so because they claim climate change is a hoax, while the other one has a problem with it not being progr…
Ya. Platforms are just one facet of the full package.
I've participated in politics in the USA. One fascinating part is the endorsement process. My local party is one of remaining orgs that does rigorous endorsements. Fewer orgs do it over time, tracking with the decline of local (political) news and rise in campaign spending (drowning out all other signals).
Some other tenacious orgs still doing endorsement processes are League of Women Voters, Urban League, Municipal League, League of Conservation Voters, NARAL, most unions, Chambers of Commerce, etc. Every org does their own thing; so this inside baseball game is a whole 'nother world of politics.
It's a lot of work, for all involved.
Candidates seeking our endorsement fill out surveys. This is above and beyond their public platform (position) statements. Some of our questions are deal breakers, where candidates have to abide by our bylaws and positions, by design.
Candidates are rarely blank slates. We also research their past voting, activities, where they get their funding, and so forth.
Then we do endorsement interviews. Every one gets the same prepared, canned questions (for fairness).
Every single election cycle, at least one of our interviews makes the local news. So it's clearly impactful.
During our deliberations, we also consider candidate's campaigns and reputations. We have a heavy bias towards people who play ball, gets things done, are effective. In other words, we're not much interested in someone who agrees with us 100%, but is unlikely to attain our policy goals.
I hope not too many people base their voting decision on the amount of similarity they have in their answers with parties. The way questions are phrased do not always give parties a way to answer (Yes/No/Neutral) in the same way. As an example, 2 parties could both say No to a higher Co2-tax, but one of them does so because they claim climate change is a hoax, while the other one has a problem with it not being progr…
we had exactly this issue with a direct democratic CO2 tax plan vote in Switzerland. most of the No's came from young voters that apparently thought it's not going far enough. IMO people who think like this are just as much a part of the problem like those who ignore the issue. When you get to vote for an improvement, even if it's not ideal, you should take it.
Either it would kill babies or it wasn't going far enough and our chance of iterating improvements to our system were squashed, just like that.
I hope not too many people base their voting decision on the amount of similarity they have in their answers with parties. The way questions are phrased do not always give parties a way to answer (Yes/No/Neutral) in the same way. As an example, 2 parties could both say No to a higher Co2-tax, but one of them does so because they claim climate change is a hoax, while the other one has a problem with it not being progr…
Great point, well made. I’d argue this is the reason for Burkean democracy, that there are too many questions with too many nuances to reduce it to multiple choice. Instead, you elect a person who you think has good judgement and leave them to do all the thinking on your behalf. But of course this system gets abused, because electors don’t know who they can trust.
As David Mayhew has shown, legislative bodies, regardless of country and system, all end up doing kind of the same thing, over the long haul.
The Imprint of Congress https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=394KcetPJHY
That seems about right to me.
Over time, I increasingly consider policy work and parliamentary work as separate jobs. (Campaigning and governing are yet other distinct jobs.)
Policy work is the discussion, lobbying, discourse, rhetoric, etc. Culture and consensus. Whatever that is.
Parliamentary work is the knife fight around the implementation. Winners and losers, struggle for power, who gets how much cake and ice cream.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "hang Nazis" posters are from the previous election [1], while "hang greens" is a new slogan from this cycle [2]. If I had to guess, I'd say that the party was hoping for the "hang greens" posters to be banned so that they could whine about the "hang nazis" posters being unfairly allowed. Not AfD by the way, but "Der Dritte Weg", a party that I learned about through the Wahl-O-Mat. [1] https://www.welt.de/regiona…
Wow, I thought the AfD was the rightmost of the German parties. I wonder if the fascists (not being hyperbolic, Mussolini advertised fascism as a "third way", the others being communism and liberalism) are localized in Westphalia and Bayern or are more widespread. They can't be very popular. Hang the Greens makes me think this is a western thing. Wouldn't they be hanging Die Linke in the east? Anyway, a Red-Red-Green…
I also wonder if parties like The Third Way or the far-left ones aren't partially ops to split the vote on the ends of the spectrum.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say the election is still very emotional because people don't know if they can trust those statements. Many young people were upset when upload filters were introduced after the politicians responsible had explicitly and publicly promised that there wouldn't be any. Many old people were upset by the amount of corruption happening recently, from overpriced covid masks to 700 mio Eur in non-refundable deposit payme…
Interesting the 700mil Eur scrapped software project. Any links, non german if possible?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a popular fantasy, but I don't think it is true. People today are already voting for parties that increase tax on them and decrease it for others. Many people vote for things that are not directly benefiting them or are even bad for them, both consciously and out of ignorance. I vote green/left, although they tax me higher, because I think climate change and social justice is more important than whether or no…
Given the amount of people arguing that the rich "don't pay their fair share" when the rich are the only ones actually paying income taxes, I would say your argument has already been disproven.
Cue Jeff Bezos getting a tax refund.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking of the German Pirate Party, I found it interesting that I haven't seen a single election poster about technology or direct democracy this year. The ones I saw were exclusively about the 1.5° climate goal, the gender wage gap, and another social topic that I forgot. Not sure if that's an actual strategy, or just the preferred way to empty their wallets while they have no chance to cross the frustrating 5% fir…
If they would have continued on their defining issue, maybe the 5% could have been attained, because privacy and security scandals to bank on are a-plenty. Oh well.