How can you tell an Orthrian? Simple: donor flows. Not voting patterns. Orthrians need to keep some camouflage, so they often vote non-Orthrian. Here's how it works:
With a nice reliance on careful insider log rolling, Orthrians can protect each other's false branding. Say you've got a rep to uphold as a feminist or a champion of labor. Well, if you're in a pinch you get a pass and vote on the wrong side -- what you might call the people's rather than master Geryon's side. You can even do this a lot -- even most of the time, if you need a lot of camouflage. On corporate issues, you can defy the board roomers -- but only in a losing battle.
Go ahead, says Geryon, go out there for a little romp, Orthrus, good doggie. Vote freely! Vote your doggy conscience -- as long as you lose, lose and lose graciously. Stand tall in defeat. Stride forth with a rugged "stay the course" jutting chin. Walk up to the net and shake the victor's hand like a good sport -- and tell your disappointed constituents, "Next time."
Comments (3)
The solution
to Duverger's Crisis
(sometimes called law)
is a
Condorcet
Monotonic
Cloneproof
Truncatable
balloting.
It's a mathematical certainty.
Posted by JS Narins | January 20, 2006 10:21 AM
Posted on January 20, 2006 10:21
Hi, just discovered your blog. I share your sentiments on worthless Democrats--see my post
http://mojavas.blogspot.com/2005/09/pathetic-democrats.html
(more recent entries have been given over to dog blogging, but I'll get back to politics eventually). May I suggest an addition to the the Lefty's Pledge--stop pandering to religion. Cf. Kerry's aping of Bush's "God Bless America" sign-off to every speech, Hillary and others fishing for votes among "faith-based" communities, etc. Let's keep politics secular--remember the old separation of church and state thing that America used to be so admired for?
Have been monitoring Tasini's challenge to Clinton in the NY senatorial race. Pisses me off that the NYT dutifully reports as unchallengeable assertion that Hillary "has the left in her back pocket", hence needs to veer right to capture so-called centrists. And pisses me off even more that the most recent article on Clinton's political campaigning didn't even see fit to mention that she had a challenger from the left.
To reduce spam, why don't you use that letter verification thing?
Posted by Jean | January 21, 2006 3:52 AM
Posted on January 21, 2006 03:52
The link Jean provided (above) is well worth a read. Very good on how the anti-war movement fell apart because it was depending on the Democrats, a story that needs telling and re-telling. Back in the Vietnam War days, we were lucky in that the Democrats were the incumbents, the ones wagaing the war.
I want to do that thing with the character recognition on comments, too, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Hate to make people wait for their comments to show up.
Posted by Michael J. Smith | January 21, 2006 1:16 PM
Posted on January 21, 2006 13:16