[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Hanomag

I think your right, we should have just one absolute ruler. No votes. He just takes charge and thats it. Definitely gets rid of all the conspiracies and other confusion. This whole voting thing is for the birds.

I think you precisely describe the attitude of masterminds behind the Watergate scandal, election manipulation, and campaign strategists and political mudthrowers all of whom do not really care for an indepedant decision finding process of the voter, but try to prevent right that, and try to sneak inside the voter's mind and manipulate him in any way possible to make him making the mark at the right place of the voting billet. Whenever a campaigner starts a rumour, whenever a politician tells a half-truth or a lie, whenever a campai9gn manager throws mud or starts a show with glamour and bombastic shine - they are about just claijming thre power for themselves and think that is their right. whenever somebody brakes the rule that voters should decide independantly and in knowledge of all facts, it just means trying to take charge - and that's it indeed.

PS. Seriously I am ex military, ex police, I am sure my papers will be,.. shall we say .. "in order".

Well, whom to vote for is the result of a decison making process, you8 one decides on the basis of info input, and thus that input, mostly by medias and desoigned by party strategists, is crucial. This is the one big archilles heel of democracy nowadays. Add to that the simple fact that most people not so much decide their vote by thinking hard on what the personell alternatives have acchieved in the past, and how realistic their promises are, but vote by habit only, or by short-sighted opportunism or psychological motivation to express protest, and you see that you cannot work around the probedolm that elected people not necessarily are the better qualified and more competent people. they are just the better media manipulators.

At least the ruling of parties could be ended, but even for that there is so willingness, not on your side of the ppond - and not on our side as well.

Would anyony trust a doctor who did not need to study medicine, but was voted for to get his job as a doctor. Hardly. but in politics, this is possible.

And the never ending problem of corrupting the system by excessive lobbying. Which is nothing else than corruption up to the highest level of government and parliament, if you think about it.