Billmon has a Twitter essay.
Billmon @billmon1 29m29 minutes ago
1) Leaving aside political stupidity of excluding indies from major party primaries, the practice relies on a myth — one of many in system.
20 retweets 10 likesBillmon @billmon1 27m27 minutes ago
2) The myth (legal fiction might be better term) is duopoly parties are purely private organizations, & thus should be able to set own rules
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Billmon @billmon1 24m24 minutes ago3) But this is pettifoggery. Reality is 2 parties enjoy a privileged position within our “2 party system” — one reinforced by state power.
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Billmon @billmon1 21m21 minutes ago4) Most states have legal barriers – usually onerous – to keep smaller parties off ballots & protect duopoly. Some still use “party lever”..
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Billmon @billmon1 20m20 minutes ago5) …to encourage straight Dem/GOP party line voting.
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Billmon @billmon1 20m20 minutes ago6) Party primaries are treated as official elections, costs subsidized by the taxpayers.
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Billmon @billmon1 18m18 minutes ago7) And on & on. Duopoly parties hard wired into legal framework of political process in ways that make a mockery of claims to private status
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Billmon @billmon1 17m17 minutes ago8) So any further attempt to limit access of indies to primary ballots would be a systemic closure — tightening cartel’s grip even more.
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Billmon @billmon1 13m13 minutes ago9) And systemic closure – like more closed primaries – to block future Sanders or Trumps would only make sclerotic, dysfunctional system…
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Billmon @billmon1 12m12 minutes ago10) …even MORE sclerotic & dysfunctional: reinforcing everything people hate about American politics & politicians.
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Billmon @billmon1 11m11 minutes ago11) Ultimately, it’s a death spiral — an oligarchical system seeking escape from consequences of oligarchy by becoming MORE oligarchical.
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Billmon @billmon1 9m9 minutes ago12) And, ultimately, it ends in systemic collapse, when a shock (a lost war, a depression, an exceptionally skilled demagogue) comes along..
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@billmon113) …that the system no longer has the political legitimacy to survive.
Nuff said. The establishment is sealing its fate.
This “essay” is more intelligible if the preceding two tweets are included at the top:
Thank you. Yes, that was before the numbered essay.
Don’t you just love the way people push genres. Not going to hold Billmon to 140 characters, no sirree.
This indies vs closed party debate is even now surpassing the fundraising debate. How will the Democrats ever have a wave if they nominate people who cannot compete amongst independents?
Because the indies aren’t monolithic. In presidential general elections within an individual state, the size of the IND registration may not even matter. Over the past six election cycles, flipping a state from red to blue and vice versa has become increasingly difficult even as the registration numbers for INDs has increased. Part of this may be due to the winner-take-all electoral college.
That’s pretty much it. Also have to keep in mind that depending on the state or region of the country, folks self-identifying as “independent” may well lean toward one party or another. I live in a region where a lot of “independents” are really glorified Republicans – not all by a longshot, but a pretty large plurality. But yeah, it could be leaners toward a major party, individuals who are not registered to a party because the one they’d likely belong to is not able to get on the ballot in their respective state, or just for as my oldest offspring would say “reasons.” Some will be single issue voters, some will have coherent ideological position, some just don’t plain give a doggone. The term independent is a bit of a grab bag.
‘Political legitimacy”? Who cares about such a genteel concept if you’ve got enormous reserves of power and money? Bernie Sanders has helped to tear the curtain away somewhat. That’s his achievement Hillary Clinton has off-shored seamstresses working 24 hours a day at her personal expense (!) to stitch up the tears and patch any holes. And that’s her philanthropic contribution to the people’s welfare: Clinton Global Initiative. She’s quite a gal, don’t you think?
The NYT has a video clip on the online frontpage of Hillary Clinton’s husband signing the 1994 welfare bill surrounded by a bunch of apparently delighted black ladies. I’m on the verge of giving up completely!
The NYT has sullied its reputation, so I don’t give it a lot of importance. They are doubling down for Clinton for obvious reasons and their readers know it and don’t like it. Here is an example of the NYT’s silliness:
http://publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/new-york-times-bernie-sanders-coverage-public-edito
r/
I do pay some attention to the comments. One learns things.
I’m back with a question. Is this Billmon the same one as the Moon of Alabama blog? If so, there he’s all about the geopolitical nightmares of the Empire in, for instance, Ukraine and especially the Middle East. He point blank deconstructs the conniving hypocrisy of Obama, Kerry, CIA, et al. accepting in a rather matter of fact the the cold, evil violence and power of it all. On Twitter he seems to concentrate on the domestic US political struggle, equally incisively. I don’t have acces to Twitter, don’t even known what it’s purpose might be, so maybe I’m mistaken. On Moon of Alabama Billmon said he isn’t eligible to vote. I assume that’s because he’s not a US citizen, not because he’s a criminal, once or currently imprisoned. What is his background? On MoA commenters have pointed out words and turns of phrase that might betray Canadian, British, German, etc. background. I’m obviously a nosy one. He has an exceptionally convincing way.
No — b at MoA is not Billmon. Billmon had a blog named “Whiskey Bar” which he borrowed from:
The song is also known as the Alabama Song and Moon Over Alabama. It was decades old when Jim Morrison borrowed it from Brecht and Weill’s opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. (Wonderfully entertaining even in a recording.)
b started MoA either when Billmon turned off the comments feature of his blog or after Billmon closed the bar.
Thanks. I could have figured this out for myself if I had just taken the trouble to look at the information on Moon of Alabama.
Try this version!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGUjGPrfA6U
It reminds us how things could have been.
Always good to reminded of the original and the lovely Lotte Lenya.
It was a shame that Billmon closed down his blog when he did. I don’t spend much time on Twitter (or much of anywhere else on the Internet tubes these days), but glad he’s still offering commentary.