Your Country's Political Landscape

A slightly less biased description of the U.S. political landscape.

• Democratic: bickering centrist party.
• Republican: bickering right-wing party
• Libertarian: bickering sometimes between, but more often Republicans with another name
• Green: bickering left-wing party
• Tea: bickering far right-wing movement helping bickering right-wing party
• The Electoral College: a joke. 538 voters are somehow more powerful than millions of voters.
• The news media: biased beyond belief to the right. But for some reason, consumers believe it's not biased enough (they claim that the media is run by so-called "liberals" despite evidence to the contrary (and the person who coined the term never ever cited sources and mostly came up with the beliefs from criticizing a third-place news show).

I expect a split between the Republican and Tea Parties as the moderates with get tired of the shit the Tea Party pulls (and because House Majority Leader Cantor is a complete moron).

edited 7th Jul '11 12:49:46 PM by Buscemi

edited 8th Jul '11 7:07:52 AM by AdeptusAlpharius

My country's political landscape looks like this◊.

Well, I'm quite suspicious towards Russia. They only pursue their own interests, just as any other great power. If they really wanted to help us, they would give a lot more than empty promises when the times were rough.

Link doesn't work.

edited 8th Jul '11 7:15:33 AM by MilosStefanovic

^ It is a map of the United States.

You know that the Russians depended on foreign aid during the 90s and that they were in a catastrophic economic shape. They weren't much in a position to do anything else then expressing discontent and sending volunteers during the wars. They helped us as much as they could. So did also the Greeks.

edited 8th Jul '11 3:36:10 PM by AdeptusAlpharius

The following might be a little biased because I consider myself staunchly libertarian and I like making fun of people. It will also be very long because I AM A VERY THOROUGH PERSON.

MAINSTREAM PARTIES: Most of the time, these are the only ones you'll hear about in American politics. Elections always boil down to picking the lesser of two evils, and those two evils always come from these parties.

Democratic Party: Haters call them socialists, but really they're more of a center-left party. They are generally on the liberal side of social issues but don't make them as big of a priority as their mishmash economic views. Unlike the Republican Party, they do not have as big of a "dedicated fanbase", so they tend to rely on minority votes and other "swing groups". Even though I disagree with a lot of their economic policies and the way Barrack Obama failed to uphold many of his promises while he was in office, the sad truth is that they are the only mainstream party that even suggests upholding civil liberties to be a good idea. But then again, they wanna ban guns. {{And That's Just Terrible}}.

Republican Party: Also known as the GOP, the Republican Party is right-wing and conservative in social issues. They are also the Jesus Party because a lot of their more vocal supporters are Christians and Catholics, normally enemies yet coming together in a brotherly hatred for gays, Muslims, and abortionists. (More secular Republicans have tried to convince me that the fundies are just a Vocal Minority, but 99% of the Republicans I've known or met are also diehard Christians or Catholics, so I'm not so sure I believe that.)

THIRD PARTIES (THAT ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING): There are lots of third parties, but they are rarely reported in the media. It's frustrating that Americans think in a political binary where one must either support the Democrats or the Republicans.

Libertarian Party: The party that would be awesome if it wasn't overrun with bigots. Especially aggravating because there are politicians who call themselves Libertarians but don't uphold any libertarian principles and only rely on the fringe conspiracy theorists and assorted wackaloons (see: Ron Paul and his son). They are extremely socially liberal, basically favoring freedom to do whatever the fuck you want as long as it doesn't hurt anybody, and the economic policies are similarly laissez-faire and strongly capitalist.

Green Party: Ralph Nader is associated with the Green Party. That's all I know.

Constitution Party: It would probably be easier to list the things that this party didn't want to criminalize. They are known for their strong stance against immigration (all of it, not just the illegals). Also, they support cutting taxes because it's "unconstitutional" but also support tariffs on imported goods, because FUCK foreign countries. This is the party that Ron Paul SHOULD belong to.

THIRD PARTIES (THAT ARE COMPLETE JOKES):

America First Party: It's the Constitution Party, except only for the most diehard fanboys of Pat Buchanan.

American Independent Party: They're paleoconservatives, but that's all I can really find on them. The only reason they still exist is because people mistakenly check their box in the Party Affiliation census because they think it means "non-partisan". Also, they think that rulers are divine servants of God, which is a throwback to the Middle Ages if I ever heard one. ("We believe that all those who govern are the servants of God for the good of citizens. Therefore all governments are under God whether they like it or not!")

American Nazi Party: Unfortunately.

American Populist Party: Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

American Third Position Party: Nazis by any other name. Their director, Kevin B. Mac Donald, has claimed that Jews get +2 to INT and +2 to CHA, and they have an alignment restriction of Lawful Evil.

America's Independent Party: Another conservative party that will never gain momentum. They are only noteworthy (not that I support them) for the fact that they support establishing English as America's official language. (America has no legally-defined official language, but English is sort of the unofficial state language because it's spoken by the most citizens.)

Boston Tea Party: No, not the guys who trolled the British by dumping their tea into the harbor. These guys are a rehash of the Libertarian Party, except they stole some ideas from Ron Paul. (Now THAT'S a new low.) One of their fanboys has added "naked porno-scanners" as a list of things that the BTP opposes on their Wikipedia page.

Citizens Party: I think they're like some mix of populist and centrist. They also have more official colors than is probably healthy. (Purple, yellow, gray, red, white, and blue! Once I got a bruise, and it turned all of those colors before it got better!)

Christian Liberty Party: They changed their name to the American Heritage Party because they don't want anyone to know that they want to inject Jesus into secular law. At their peak, they had a whopping 700 paid members.

Communist Party USA: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The USSR dissed them in 1989 because they weren't supporting glasnost and perestroika.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Communism meets black nationalism meets Hispanic nationalism. No, seriously. They support complete independence for African-Americans in the "Black Belt Region" of the U.S. South, and the same for Chicanos in the U.S. Southwest.

Freedom Socialist Party: A socialist feminist party that founded the United Front Against Fascism (UFAF) and joined forces with leftists, the LGBT community, labor unionists, feminists, minorities, Jews, and civil libertarians in a fight against the neo-Nazi menace in the Pacific Northwest.

Jefferson Republican Party: They are anti-war and support state's rights. Probably the funniest aspect of this party is that their webpage is actually a semi-rambling blogspot.

Libertarian National Socialist Green Party: They are not totally libertarians, they are not totally "Green", and they are not totally Nazis. In fact, it's been suggested that they are a joke. However, there seem to be real people who adhere to the party's teachings, and they happen to strongly support Savitri Devi, who is a Hindu Nazi mystic. Their party flag also bears a striking resemblance to the outfit worn by the comic-book supervillain Captain Nazi. The LNSGP takes the cake for the funniest "WTF" party to date.

United States Marijuana Party: Weed has its own party now. They are a single-issue party. Their only focus is legalizing weed. That's it.

Modern Whig Party: They're kinda centrist-ish.

National Socialist Movement: Once, these guys sponsored a half-mile section of U.S. Highway 160 outside of Springfield, Missouri, as a part of the Adopt-A-Highway Trash Cleanup program. In an act of incredible lulz, the highway was later renamed the "Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway" by the state legislature. Also, the leader of the California branch was killed by his own ten-year-old son.

Objectivist Party: I didn't know that there were Ayn Rand fans old enough to vote.

Peace and Freedom Party: They're anti-pollution... and I guess they like socialism too... damn, I don't have any jokes.

United States Pirate Party: Savage Heathen, take note. Another single-issue party whose only focus is reforming copyright laws.

Populist Party of America: They say that we should stop using our Constitution and revert to the writings of Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine (who opposed the Constitution) instead.

Progressive Labor Party: While the Communist Party USA seems like more of The Woobie, these ones are the asshole communists who think that Stalin was a pretty swell guy.

Prohibition Party: They are the oldest third party in the U.S., founded in 1869, and they have some outdated ideas to go along with their outdated existence. The Prohibition period was an epic fail, guys. Get over it.

Reform Party: They are completely focused on economics, and seem to be on the protectionist side of things. Once Pat Buchanan took over and tried to turn it into another Jesus Party, but he was kicked out.

Revolutionary Communist Party: They say that Mao is the best ruler ever and had amazing policies and ideas, but Stalin? That guy was just a dick.

Party for Socialism and Liberation, Socialist USA, Socialist Action, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Equality, Socialist Workers, Workers Party, Workers World Party, World Socialist Party, etc: Yeah, there's actually a lot of socialist and communist parties in America. Unfortunately, they're mostly the scary kind of socialism/communism (YES I KNOW THEY'RE NOT THE SAME THING).

Unity Party: A centrist party that started on an online discussion board. No, seriously.

Working Families Party: A center-left party that seems to support a lot of politicians from other parties, but never seem to champion any of their own. That's because they're actually the chess masters, the man behind the man, of American politics. Who would expect this tiny, ineffectual, pathetic party to hold any power? Oh, but they do! They work with Spanish Jesuit alien warlock Kabbalists to influence world government and to usher in the age of the New World Order!

ಠ_ಠ

Just to clarify, I am more confused by the distinction between Catholic and Christian. Also, Catholics generally tend to vote Democrat due to the whole 'social justice' thing and historical connections. This isn't to say that there aren't many Catholic Republicans. It is just that they are neither the Republican Party's main supporters or particularly vocal about it.

edited 8th Jul '11 9:04:01 PM by Pentadragon

^ Indeed.

Kinkajou: Actually, he was CMD before crossing the floor. And given his stance on most issues that doesn't involve a vagina, he doesn't seem like a typical Nationalist.

Suzy: Catholics are Christians. [goes into long rant about the extremely bigoted elements of Protestants]. Catholics are swing voters, though, typically - depends on which is more important that particular election - economics or social issues?

edited 10th Jul '11 7:48:05 PM by Cojuanco

Over here in France, we're gearing up for the big 2012 elections (President + lower house of Parliament in quick succession), and boy does it show.

GOVERNMENT PARTIES :

• l'Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP, Union for a Popular Movement), the big right-wing party which is actually a conglomerate of various sub-movements (liberals, Christian center-right, social-gaullists, right-wing populists...) that banded together in order to gather as many votes as possible in elections under one name. It's worked quite well as such (they've been in power for the last ten years, after all), but it's started to show its limits over the last few years. The most moderate factions are chaffing about the (somewhat disproportionate) weight of the most right-wing factions, and a good number of them are either jumping ship or considering supporting another candidate than President Sarkozy. (His longtime rival de Villepin is perking up, although he doesn't have much support, really.) And then there are those UMP leaders who aren't above sabotaging the 2012 elections to better position themselves for 2017...

• le Nouveau Centre (NC, New Center) was created in 2007 by the center-right politicians who sided with Sarkozy to get elected (when they didn't outright join the UMP). They've been marking their distance with the UMP quite a bit over the last year (again because of their very right-wing tendencies), and have just decided to throw their lot with popular former Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo. I don't think Borloo's in a position to win the election, but he can probably make Sarkozy lose it.

OPPOSITION PARTIES :

• le Parti Socialiste (PS), center-left, is the main opposition party, but it's been in disarray ever since their leader self-destructed in 2002. The big question is whether they can get their shit together for 2012, because the political climate is the best it's been for them in forever and they can't afford to lose. It doesn't help that the DSK scandal has deprived them of their best candidate for Presidency (to say nothing of the moral blowback) and we're down to the second-stringers and wannabes. The primaries are due in Fall, we won't know their actual candidate until then.

•    le Front National    (FN), far-right, is the big troublemaker. They managed to eliminate the PS candidate in the 2002 elections, and they may do it yet again (although this time it's Sarkozy who's in danger : he won in 2007 by attracting the FN voters, but it's doubtful that strategy'll work again). New leader Marine le Pen has been trying to "clean up" the party from its most obvious neo-nazis extremists so that it'd be more "respectable", but it's still a xenophobic party that has no chance in hell to ever get elected in 2012.

• Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV, the Green) have been on the rise in the last few years. They're not really into this to win : they hope to make a good score so that they can weigh more as they ally with the PS. (Actually, that's pretty much the case for every party mentioned under this one, as well as the NC.) Presumed candidate (the primaries end tomorrow) : Eva Joly, former anti-corruption judge.

• le Front de Gauche (FDG, "Left Front"), left-wing, with Jean-Luc Mélanchon as candidate... which is quite a coup, considering this former PS member had little political support until he allied with the communists (who, while in decline for decades, still have a semi-strong voter base).

• le Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem), center-right, is basically François Bayrou and his few remaining pals ; most of his former allies have deserted him to support Sarkozy (see the NC entry above). Whatever momentum he had in 2007 (18% of votes !), he's pretty much squandered by now (especially as he allied with both the PS and UMP in local elections, something which is just not done in French Politics as it makes a party look unreliable).

And that's pretty much it as far as parties that matter go. There used to be a semi-strong far-left party (the NPA), but it's pretty much self-destructed over the last couple of years, and most of its voter base has been stolen by the FDG.

edited 11th Jul '11 5:16:17 AM by Jhiday

Singapore:

Government:

People's Action Party - The one and only ruling party. Dominated every single election since the country gained independence in 1965. Often accused of browbeating the opposition, preventing any real challenge to its authority. Lost some ground in recent elections (May 2011), but still holds 81 out of 87 seats.

Opposition:

Workers' Party - Only opposition party with any seats in parliament (6 out of 87). Was the very first ruling party before independence, but swiftly lost power and never again became a viable force.

The Rest (NSP, SDP, etc.) - ..minor parties with no seats in parliament. What difference they have in ideology, if any, is completely unknown to the average voter.

To put it simply, the political climate here is.. not very interesting.

Germany:
General:
You get two votes in the general election, one for the party (or their voting list) and one for a specific candidate in your area. The winning candidate will always be in the parliament, the list is used to fill the parliament up. Parties who got less than 5% of the votes are not considered when calculating the seats for the parliament, unless they got at least 3 candidates in with the direct election. Parties who got at least 1% of the votes will get money for each vote.

Germany has a (pretty powerless) president who can only refuse to sign a law if it is unconstitutional. Most of the power lies with the chancellor. The chancellor is elected by the Bundestag (federal parliament), the president is elected by the Bundesrat (federal council, in function similar to the US senate or the House of Lords). The current chancellor is Angela Merkel (CDU), the current president is Christian Wulff (CDU)

Government:

The Union parties: Those two parties form a union, the CSU only candidates in Bavaria, the CDU in the rest of Germany, but for the federal election their votes are counted together. Got 33.8% in the last election.

CDU - Christian Democratic Union
The current ruling party. Socially conservative, centre-right. The current chancelor is from the CDU. Mainly voted for by old people.

CSU - Christian Social Union
More right wing than the CDU. Maybe still more left wing than most Democrats in the USA. Dominating party in Bavaria, getting most of their votes from the countryside.

FDP - Free Democratic Party
Liberals (in the European meaning). They consist of two wings. One wing focusses on civil liberties and opposes many security laws, the other wing focusses on the free market and unregulated market as well as low taxes. The latter wing got pretty dominant in the last years. Got 14.6% of the votes in the last election, but dropped to around 3% shortly after they joined the government. (Meaning they wouldn't be able to enter parliament again as it stands now). Their leader, Guido Westerwelle, is notable for being the first politician who lost popularity after he became the secretery of foreign affairs in the history of the federal republic.

Opposition:
SPD - Social Democratic Party of Germany
Centre-left. Had (or still has) two wings, left and right. Though many of the left-wing left the party after the SPD was in the government. Oldest party of Germany (1875). Got 23% of the votes in the last election, dropping from 34.2% in 2005.

Die Linke - The Left
A Fusion of the PDS, the succesor of the SED (ruling party in the DDR) with the WASG (some other left wing party). Gained in popularity after many left the SPD. Is obviously left-wing and got 11.9% of the votes.

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen - Alliance 90/The Greens
Fusion of Alliance 90 (consisting of 3 former non-communist parties in the DDR) and The Greens in West Germany. Environmentalist and mainly feminist party. Got 10.7% of the votes.

Parties who failed to enter parliament:
Piratenpartei - Pirate Party
Civil rights and internet freedom party which gained popularity after a controversial law about internet censorship. Got 2% of the votes.

NPD - National Democratic Party of Germany
The Nazi party. Or the national party with a lot of suspected overlap with actual nazis. In Germany that's almost the same anyway. An attempted ban for unconstitutionality failed, because the police had too many people within the party on their payroll, making it impossible to discern genuine party decisions from decisions influenced by the police. It was joked that the party consists mainly of people from the police. Got 1.5% of the votes, mainly in East Germany.

Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz - Human Environment Animal Welfare
Got 0.5% of the votes, propably mainly by people who didn't know what to vote and thought the name couldn't be something bad.

REP - The Republicans
Splinter party of the CSU. Was observed for extreme right wing tendencies, but it seems like the suspections weren't confirmed. Very right wing, and largely insignifact. 0.4% of the votes.

FAMILIE - The Family Party of Germany
Uh... yeah Exactly What It Says on the Tin. 0.3% of the votes.

ÖDP - Ecological Democratic Party
A mixture between conservative Christians and environmentalists. Splinter party of The Greens. Has some actual relevance in Bavaria, where the party gets most of its votes, but is insignificant in Germany. 0.3%

RRP - Pensioner Party (Rentnerinnen- und Rentner-Partei, "Female pensioner and male pensioner party")
One half of a former combined party. Both new parties copy and pasted their election goals from each other. They - of course - support more rights for pensioners, but surprisingly also better education for the youth. 0.2%

Rest (still 14 parties) got less than 0.1%.

edited 11th Jul '11 4:58:32 PM by Uchuujinsan

Sober allow me to revise your list:

Democratic Unionist Party: Extreme Unionists, hate Nationalists. Currently the head honchos over at Stormont, but probably not for much longer. Divisive and religiously conservative Protestants.

Ulster Unionist Party: Moderate Unionist Party.

Traditional Unionist Voice: Oh boy, do these guys hate Sinn Fein. Sworn a personal vendettta against the Irish. Broke away from the DUP for not being Unionist and Sinn Fein hating enough. Single-Issue Wonk party and complete assholes.

Progressive Unionist Party: Not really heard of much, at least not round my way. Seems to hate Catholics. Generally politically irrelevant.

_______________________

Sinn Féin: Exreme Nationalists, HATE the British and committed to re-uniting Ireland regardless of whether it makes sense or not. Perceived as Single-Issue Wonk party by large proportion of populace owing to constant ranting by Gerry Adams. Made up of a lot of former terrorists. Divisive and religiously conservative Catholics.

Social Democratic and Labour Party: Moderate Nationalist Party. Generally considered to be rather sensible. Disliked by opposition solely because they support eventually, someday, maybe re-uniting Ireland.

Éirígí: Unknown and politically irrelevant.

Republican Sinn Féin: Idiots who refuse to reject the use of political violence. Extreme nationalists with solid links to the CIRA. Basically if the TUV were nationalist and threatening to blow people up if they don't get their way. Probably belong in a cell at Maghaberry. Violent assholes.

_______________________

Alliance Party: Center-Left moderates who refuse to take either side. Generally inoffensive and often the party of choice for disaffected youth who wish to move past the sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Recently won their first seat to Westminster in rather dramatic fashion -by ousting Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson from his East Belfast seat in the National Elections.

Green Party: Far left environmentalist party. Lacks widespread support and doesn't even campaign in all districts. Far more youth oriented than other parties.

edited 12th Jul '11 3:38:02 AM by Capt.Fargle

Since i am currently in Indonesia :

• Democratic Party / Partai Demokrat : Current government party, led by former general / current president SBY (Susilo Bambang yudhoyono). Colour Blue. 20% in Legislative.

• Party of the Functional Groups (Partai Golongan Karya, Golkar) : Ruling party during Soeharto time (at that time refuse to be called a party), supported by local politician and civil service, essentially a political machine, the only major party that not dominated by individual or religious groups. Colour Yellow. 14%.

• Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan, PDI–P) : led by Megawati Soekarnoputri, daughter of former President Soekarno. secular and nationalist, and usually care about the poor, sadly incompetent and Mega husband is corrupt. Colour Red. 14%

• Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS) : connected to Hizbut Tahrir, extreme islamist organization that want to restore Caliphate. emphasize anti-corruption instead of islamic during campaign, does appear to be less corrupt than other parties. Colour White. 8%

• National Mandate Party (Partai Amanat Nasional, PAN) : connected to Islamic organisation Muhammadiyah. Colour lighter blue. 6%

• United Development Party (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan, PPP): Islamist Party. Colour Green. 5%

• National Awakening Party (Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa, PKB): connected to islamic organisation Nadhatul Ulama. Islamic Party, but relatively moderate. Colour Green. 5%

• Great Indonesia Movement Party (Partai Gerakan Indonesia Raya, Gerindra) : led by Former General Prabowo, Son in law of former Presiden Soeharto. 4%

• People's Conscience Party (Partai Hati Nurani Rakyat, Hanura) : led by Former General Wiranto. 4%

• Crescent Star Party (Partai Bulan Bintang, PBB) : Islamic Party. 2%

• Prosperous Peace Party (Partai Damai Sejahtera, PDS) : Christian Party. 1%

Politics in Indonesia is not very interesting. as you can see most Party led by General or related to Religious organization. Corruption become big issue, but everybody corrupt.

Difference between Government and Opposition are nearly non-existent, Almost all party (PDI-P one of the exception) participate in Cabinet, but they representative in Legislative still criticizing the government.

edited 12th Jul '11 1:00:12 AM by PhilippeO

There is also the Party List system in our country, Philippines, where special interest groups [unions, anti-abortion crowd, Straw Feminists like Gabriela, and the like] get represented at large and without district. This was the preserve of the Philippine Far-left and the ultra-Catholic conservatives. The ultra-Catholics get away with the secular nature clause by being anti-abortion or family planning party and so on.

Of course, the thing is, the center on social issues in the RP is in some ways similar to the pre-Tiger version of Ireland (I mean, the Philippines is the only country aside from the Vatican that still bans divorce for most of the population). So the pro-life position is pretty much in most of the mainstream parties anyway. Even Aquino, for his quarrels with the bishops, isn't likely to touch abortion - that's GABRIELA's hat.

What is the political landscape in bat countryNevada?