(Untitled)

[forestofglory]

I find it slightly worrying that I'm reading more about the UK election then the California primaries (which happen two days latter). Though this election isn't that exciting, November will be more exciting by far. The Democratic Primary is fairly un-exciting it's mostly incumbents. There are 5 ballot measures, which do need do some research on.

Comments

[anonymous]

What do you think about the UK elections? I think I'm going to be voting Lib Dem. I've been mostly impressed with the televised Leaders' debates, too, I think they have worked to raise awareness and reach people.

--Carol

[forestofglory]

I still find UK politics in general very confusing. There are so many parties. I'm not sure I really understand what is going on.

[cartesiandaemon]

It's not actually that much different conceptually. You probably know most of this, but I'll give a little bit of a summary, I don't know if it will be things you don't know or not, but it will help me to write it. There's enough slack in the electoral system that you can have three major parties instead of two, but labour and conservative are polarised in a similar way to the way democrats and republicans are polarised (not on ALL the same issues, but there's a general left/right split

[forestofglory]

hmmm... I did know a lot of that stuff. It's which unpopular things have been done by which party, and how exactly left and right are different from the US versions of left and right that confuse me.

Like I get that everyone there is sane and thinks national health care is good idea, and also that climate change is something we should be worried about. However I don't really understand what are the issues most voters are likely to care about. So I understand how the process works[*] but not really what is at stake.

[*] There are some bits that I think we in the US do better -- like having each district have equal population, and you know separation of powers, but that may be because my education was brain-washy in some ways.