The Liberal tendency

The Liberal Democrats have had their party conference and despite grumbles the party is holding together (because if it didn’t electoral oblivion would be even more obvious than some say it already is). I think it is right that the Lib Dems are in coalition with the Conservatives as Labour simply wasn’t prepared to give any ground on its proposals if in alliance with the Lib Dems, not even on electoral reform which was in the Labour party’s manifesto! The Labour high command just wasn’t prepared for two- or multi-party politics, let alone that the numbers would have made a highly unwieldy collation.
If the Lib Dems aren’t to be wiped out at the next election (hopefully 2015), the least that can happen is that Alternative Vote (AV) is passed into law with a successful referendum. The details are hazy to myself, so who knows how ordinary people view it – is it AV, AV+ (Lord Jenkins’ formulation that offers a mixture of proportionality as well as keeping the local candidates in constituencies) or something else.
Reactionary opponents fulminate on how the Lib Dems can ‘dictate’ such terms to the coalition given their number of MPs went down since 2005. Their blinkered approach shows why they are anachronistic in the 21st century – there may be fewer Lib Dem MPs, but their share of the vote since 2005 went up (from 22% in 2005 to 23%). To have fewer MPs when more people vote for you is Kafkaesque in the extreme.
Their second argument is the first-past-the-post system produces strong government because a single party is in charge. This is just one step up from the People’s Democracies of the former Communist Eastern Europe. They provided firm rule and were single party states. The major political difference between us and them is that we – occasionally – rotate what sole party is in power. Although many foes of electoral reform are right-wing, they may actually be closet communists.
Frankly though, these people are a joke or (or prefer corruption as it favours their party) and should be exposed as such.

Talking of rotten systems, the USA is like Britain writ large, with the consequences even more detrimental. The democratic tradition and engagement is fine and upstanding, one of the best in the world, but they are let down by out-of-date institutions. An arrangement designed for 3 million people living across 13 states in 1783 is now applied to 300 million across 50 states. With the passing years, it is less and less able to support this increase. Now an American’s usual response is: what business is it of yours how we elect people (with possibly a ‘you’re a European’ thrown in). But the USA bestrides the world – its military, economic and cultural power extends into every cranny of almost every country. That makes it our business. To coin a phrase, Bhutan it ain’t.
When a system malfunctions more than a BP oil rig, it is especially grievous when the centre has collapsed like a BP oil rig. Okay, it was notorious left-winger Noam Chomsky who made the claim that the Republicans are migrating ever further right (Lincoln turns in his graves) and the Democrats are indistinguishable from moderate Republicans (Eisenhower-types), but it rings true. Justin Rose mooted that it was the swing of the pendulum – the left had their moment in the 1960s and now the right are back with a vengeance (in more ways than one). Yet it is dangerous as it exists in a broken organisational morass and people are desperate when economic stagnation seems to be turning permanent. Barack Obama has been labelled the most-partisan president in living memory (oh, like the last president was a model of bi-partisan probity without referring to 9/11), but he has dealt with a wounded Republican party that is the most obstreperous and obstructing probably in US congressional history. It may make sense in holding itself together but it is ‘political terrorism’ according to the Washington Post, hardly a liberal organ most of the time. The filibuster rule was brought in to stop majoritarian tyranny over the minority, which makes sense when there are only two main parties but it is being abused in nearly every instance. Take the vote on repealing ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ to allow gay Americans to serve their country without being forced out of the military because their sexuality has somehow been revealed. It was an Obama pledge and he can point out that Republicans have scuppered it, as they did with the climate change bill, but it still leaves it unfulfilled, despite Lady Gaga entering the fray (although given her extravagance and lifestyle, her advocacy may have retrenched the conservative opposition in Congress). If the electoral method was re-evaluated to bring it into the 21st century, maybe two main parties would not dominate, Americans might get more of what they want and a filibuster rule would not be needed. But any such progressive attempt will be shot down by vested interests who believe one more push, just one last push, will secure them power without need for reform. It is sad that Labour thought the same after the 2010 election and again in voting against the bill that contained the AV referendum. Both the USA and Britain deserve better from the political opposition.