Posted by sigismund on November 24, 2017, at 5:13:12
In reply to Re: Politics meets mental health » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 23, 2017, at 16:14:29
>We're too big a country.
Smaller countries (like Norway and New Zealand) have better or less dreadful politics than bigger countries.I had been reading (where?) a conversation between Bill McKibbon and perhaps Robert Scheer. So Bill McKibbon lives in Vermont and at least every month the community votes on (here I don't remember) on whether to buy a new grader or not (anyway something like that). He really liked it. (I think I'd like the climate. Nothing like a good excuse to keep you inside.)
The USA is a lot more decentralised than Australia. We have 2 levels, federal and state, and local is by state legislation and has very limited powers. (There were 2 Greens elected in the Victorian state election recently, I heard.)
People I read talk about using that decentralisation in the US. Our senate is modelled on yours, but we have proportional representation there so it is better than it sounds. There was a rancher from somewhere like Wyoming promoting a film he was part of. He and his son were there in their big hats. It must have been "Gasland". There wasn't a dry eye in the house at the sight of those truly decent ordinary (in the best sense) people trying to live as they had always done. He came twice I think. We elected a Green State member and very nearly a second after that campaign. The State Government backed off and reaccepted the leases they had so easily given out. That's what happens when you deprive the regulatory agencies of support for decades on end. The question should have been (in a dry country like Australia) 'Can you prove that this will not contaminate the aquifers'.
Trump's appointments hit a new level in disassembling the regulatory agencies. I wonder about his motivation. The attack is on reality itself? He is enviously in love with Barack? Should he have married a black athlete? Certainly a man to make you think.
poster:sigismund
thread:1095093
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20140225/msgs/1096009.html