Party and Identity

I was thinking about how a lot of Americans (I don't know whether it's a majority of voters) have a strong personal connection to a political party--it takes a lot to get them to vote for a member of the other party, and it can be an emotional strain to do so, though I think this isn't as pervasive now as it was in decades past.

Being an independent can be an identity issue, too--it's not just "I vote for the candidates I think are best, regardless of party", but "I'm the sort of person who doesn't choose candidates by their party".

Do people have less identification with political parties in countries that have parlimentary systems?

Update:: At least so far as my first four comments are concerned, the answer is absolutely not--my impression was that Parlimentary systems give people an exhilerating (or at least moderately entertaining) amount of choice between parties, but apparently it doesn't work like that.

Party and Identity

I was thinking about how a lot of Americans (I don't know whether it's a majority of voters) have a strong personal connection to a political party--it takes a lot to get them to vote for a member of the other party, and it can be an emotional strain to do so, though I think this isn't as pervasive now as it was in decades past.

Being an independent can be an identity issue, too--it's not just "I vote for the candidates I think are best, regardless of party", but "I'm the sort of person who doesn't choose candidates by their party".

Do people have less identification with political parties in countries that have parlimentary systems?

Update:: At least so far as my first four comments are concerned, the answer is absolutely not--my impression was that Parlimentary systems give people an exhilerating (or at least moderately entertaining) amount of choice between parties, but apparently it doesn't work like that.

Stranger than fiction

http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/31519.html?nc=5 has a comment about being surprised to discover that people really can turn blue from silver nitrate medication.

I was surprised to discover that the bit about Dorothy falling asleep in the poppy field in _The Wizard of Oz_ is based on a real risk--opium fumes hang close to the ground in poppy fields and children shouldn't go into them. So much else in the book is unrealistic, and I wasn't in the habit of thinking of flowers doing biochemical warfare.

In King's _The Green Mile_, there's a bit about a child's fingertip regenerating after being cut off. All the characters accept it as a miracle, and if I hadn't read _The Body Electric_ (a book about electrical fields in living organisms), I would have taken the regeneration as a fantastic element. Before some lowish age (8 years old, I think), children have the ability to regenerate fingertips.

What else in fiction is implausible but true?

Stranger than fiction

http://crowleycrow.livejournal.com/31519.html?nc=5 has a comment about being surprised to discover that people really can turn blue from silver nitrate medication.

I was surprised to discover that the bit about Dorothy falling asleep in the poppy field in _The Wizard of Oz_ is based on a real risk--opium fumes hang close to the ground in poppy fields and children shouldn't go into them. So much else in the book is unrealistic, and I wasn't in the habit of thinking of flowers doing biochemical warfare.

In King's _The Green Mile_, there's a bit about a child's fingertip regenerating after being cut off. All the characters accept it as a miracle, and if I hadn't read _The Body Electric_ (a book about electrical fields in living organisms), I would have taken the regeneration as a fantastic element. Before some lowish age (8 years old, I think), children have the ability to regenerate fingertips.

What else in fiction is implausible but true?

History and snarking at Bush

http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_11_20/feature.html

Has there been any other political leader with such a talent for pissing off people who would normally be on his or her side?

History and snarking at Bush

http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_11_20/feature.html

Has there been any other political leader with such a talent for pissing off people who would normally be on his or her side?