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stroller

The US is not a democracy.

Boon Mee

It's as close to one as y'all going to find...

buadhai

Let's see, he can't spell or construct a complete sentence. No wonder he's a Republican!

forreachingme

over a couple of years or so, the price here in Thailand went for the liter at 9 - 12 bahts forward to the actual 30 baht approx... let's say 3 times almost !

I was in the states for the last times in 1995 probably and i try to remember the price of the gallon, i think it was near 50 cents the gallon !

Just few days ago someone told me the price of the gallon is today still 50 cents a gallon over there, possible ? true ?

stroller

Not at all.
Which countries and their electoral system have you compared with the US?
I suspect you are not knowledgable enough to make any comparisons. Also, 'pure' democracy isn't really something to strive for, it's equivalent to "mob rule".

Actually, this would make an interesting new topic, I'll look into this.

man with no head

You must be kidding me. I have never seen gasoline at 50 cents a gallon here. The cheapest in my purchasing life was high school (1987) when regular (yes, some places still sold leaded gasoline) was 69 cents per gallon. Now you pay almost $3.00 and that's by cheating you 10% of your purchase by putting ethanol in it (which has a lower BTU content).

man with no head

I would argue that in a Federal system the electoral college is the best way to assure that highly populated states have some check on their power. In a system like Thailand's a winner takes all system makes sense since the provinces aren't de facto countries like each of the 50 states are.

I think the problem with the electoral system is that many times (Bill Clinton included) that a President gets elected without having a clear majority of the vote. Due to the population distribution of citizens among states a candidate can win the popular vote but not the electoral vote. You have to remember that we have 50 states here cooperating, so, the population of a single state should never determine the outcome of a Presidential election (take CA with over 50,000,000 people...would it be fair for a popular Californian to run for President and get a huge 10,000,000 vote margin that alone would guarantee a win in a winner takes all system? I think not, there are 49 other states that should count as well).

I think the system needs tweaking but not replacement since the USA is unique in it's federal system of power division between states and national government.

Whiteshiva

A blowjob vs the right to know if your elected leaders are breaking the law?

You rednecks have strange priorities! Non-copoerative sisters, perhaps?

stroller

I don't want to delve in deeply now, but my point was that the US is not the 'best democracy in the world. It's a federal republic with a constitution, I wasn't commenting on whether the present system is a good and fair one.
I'll start a topic comparing different electoral systems later.

man with no head

That should make for an interesting thread.

buadhai

Is now a good time for me to admit I remember when gasoline (petrol) was 25 cents a gallon in Southern California? That was when I had just started driving and my Volkswagen had no gas gauge, just an "emergency" reserve supply. When I went surfing I used to collect a dollar each from my buddies and that was enough to get us over to Ventura County Line and then back to the Valley.

Lyndon Johnson, another Texan, was President back then. He beat Goldwater with effective marketing, but the Vietnam war did him in, which led to the resurrection of Richard Nixon; a brilliant Republican who was nearly impeached (note the spelling Boon Mee) but who resigned in disgrace after his nefarious attempts to subvert democracy in an attempt to grab power illegitimately. After all, for Republicans it's all about power, isn't it?

Whiteshiva

Aren't we all glad this kind of behaviour is a thing of the past.......

Boon Mee

I was down in Huntington Beach for less - not more than a 3 mile drive but the point here it were them liberal hippies that did in Johnson and the Patriotic Viet Nam War. 'Gunga' Dan Rather, Jane Fonda and the rest of that ilk. W/out the Benidict Arnold's of America, we would have pulled it off.

Yes, then came Tricky Dick Nixon who opened up China and was well-served by a fine Vice President name of Spiro T. Agnew who coined the famous expression: "Nattering Nabobs of Negativism" which we see all-too frequently 'round here...

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Mr Earl

You aren't as stupid as your avatar looks!

Mr Earl

No the US is a democratic republic. I'm surprised that escaped you!

man with no head

Hasn't been for very long. Remember, a true democracy is representative of all citizens. It wasn't too long ago that blacks and women, even those born here, were denied basic democratic rights.

Whiteshiva

You mean a two party republic. After all, you are just one party ahead of the communists......

man with no head

Truth be told there's very little difference.

Mr Earl

Actually it's a fairly complicated representative electoral college system.
I not an expert but I think it's light years ahead of anything the soviets ever had.

And guess what? The proof of the pudding is.....while not perfect it works fairly well.

The rest of the world is just jealous.