Washington vs. Maliki

Townhall.com ^ | August 31, 2007 | Charles Krauthammer

[Kaslin]

WASHINGTON -- The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has had more than 15 months to try to pacify the Sunni insurgency by offering national accords on oil-sharing, provincial elections and de-Baathification. It has done none of these. Instead, Gen. David Petraeus has pacified a considerable number of Sunni tribes with grants of local autonomy, guns and U.S. support in jointly fighting al-Qaeda.

[muawiyah]

Krathammer has a problem with party-list voting.

Scandinavians don't.

Wonder why he didn't mention them?

It's not that I'm a fan of party-list voting, but it does expand the reach of electoral opportunity to smaller socio-political entities than our single-member districts do.

Putting Sunni sheikhs into the Iraqi parliament would not really be a good idea when the option of excluding them entirely from Iraqi society can be readily accomplished by simply driving them back to Saudi Arabia where they came from. Obviously we'd want that done humanely.

[gusopol3]

please insert "" at the beginning and end of same in your mosaic post.

[gusopol3]

sorry, it’s supposed to say “sarc” between the Quotations.

[GeorgefromGeorgia]

Party listing is common in countries with several political parties. It gives out representation proportionally, as long as the party reaches a threshold (5% in Germany). I think that it adds to the proliferation of parties. Israel is an example were too many parties have reduced the effectiveness of Government.

Some Freepers advocate third parties, constantly refer to many GOP leaders as RINOs. In some cases they are correct about the RINOs, but I prefer two big tent parties, rather than 7-8 parties that have more ideological purity.

[muawiyah]

SOmetimes the additional parties reflect pre-existing political realities ~ e.g. the couple that represent the Fries who live in Friesland in Nederland politics, or the Danish pig farming areas vs. the Danish environmental interests who live in the better suburbs "upwind" just West of the capital, but near the Medora/Oresund.

No way a big tent party can effectively deal with those situations.

Cornbelt politics are certainly more straightforward but the old multi-member (state legislative) district in Indianapolis gave separate voices to Eli Lilly interests (in horses) versus East Side interests in abatement of Eli Lilly' boiling pots.

[gusopol3]

sorry I botched my question to you, but I still assume you’re not serious about driving Sunni sheiks back to Saudi Arabia, humanely ?

[nuconvert]

Bump

[muawiyah]

I never advocate violence, but we will probably have to get across to the sheikhs that resistance is futile.