SHORT INTRODUCTION
Most other nations have national political parties
whose members, directly or indirectly, write and
approve an enforceable political platform that gives
political unity to the party. Conversely, the U.S.
has National Committees. The Democratic National
Committees and the Republican National Committees
collect money at the national level. They can provide
the convenience of one-stop shopping for donors. However,
this is not the is not the only service these organization
provide the U.S. citizens! Working together our national
committees can often create a great deal of bipartisan****p.
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BIPARTISAN****P AND OUR NATIONAL COMMITTEES
Quote is from _Arrogant Capital_ by Kevin Phillips 1994
"Aspects of Republican-Democratic rivalry can
seem as staged and phony as American professional
wrestling. Since the 1980's bipartisan****p in the
United States frequently involves suspending
electoral combat to orchestrate some outcome
with no great public sup****t, but a high priority
among key elites.
In foreign policy, these issues have included
the Panama Canal treaties and NAFTA, the North American
Free Trade Agreement with Mexico. On the Domestic front,
bipartisan commissions or summit meetings have been used
to increase Social Security taxes on average Americans
while the income tax rates of the rich were coming down
and to raise the salaries of members of Congress.
The pay raise deal involved walking on so many political
eggshells that both sides negotiated an extraordinary
side bargain: that the Democratic and Republican National
Committees would refuse to fund any congressional candidate
who broke the bipartisan agreement and made the pay raise
an issue!"
SOURCE:
Arrogant Capital, by Kevin Phillips, 1994
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SOME PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT U.S. POLITICS
1 The DNC/RNC can provide a significant amount of
party unity by controlling who gets their money.
2. Any unity they provide would tend to be approved
of by the donors.
3. Any time that a significant numbers politicians
of both political parties feel disturbed about voter
influence, both the DNC and the RNC stand ready to do
all in their power to eliminate that influence.
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As a political science book I read in the 70's said
(paraphrasing) ; "Political parties in the U.S. are
probably unique in having few other functions than
raising money for politicians."
Jack
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