The GAT Thread

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:05 pm

I'm pretty sure I would tick off my entire voting base. For instance, I am a registered Democrat in an area that hasn't seen a Republican elected to the House of Representitives in a good 60 years. Even though I'm a registered Democrat, I have some very anti-Democrat point of views (all of which I will vehemently defend if I need to). Because of that, not many people are willing to discuss politics with me. Hehehe...

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 5:21 pm

I actually did a "where are you on the political spectrum" quiz today. I was RIGHT in the middle. But the strange thing is most of my views aren't liberal, they are all either conservative or socialist. It was funny because my friend's score was so far left it was considered communist.

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:27 pm

My parents are die hard conservatives...I'm not sure if I'm green party or commie though.

Ty'e X'lor · Post by **Ty'e X'lor** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:09 pm

I would hate to be a politician, and abandon my career as a marine. But if the future of my country hangs in the balance. Then by God I will make such a sacrfice. I do not care for fame or power or money. I do not care if im forgotten in the ever expanding annals off history. All I care is that my country succeeds, and I will work my butt off and sacrifice everything I have to make sure that, that objective is met. I do not care if I have to sacrifice everything I ever dreamed of achieving to make sure that my country is one of the finest and that every American has the best oppurtunity possible.

(And Kurke may find this surprising, I hope that I also contribute to the welfare and betterment of the world and do my part to propel the world towards peace. A planet where people's kids can go play outside and not worry about them dissapearing or riddled with bullet holes. And the need for a military is non-existant. Even though I am heavilly militaristic and my views are often violent and cold, I still believe heavilly in peace.

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:16 pm

I took a similar test in high school and I was pretty far left. Of course, that was when I was a senior in high school. I'm a junior in college. Any more I'm preactically a left leaning moderate. While I'm a registered Democrat, I feel both parties are doing one piss poor job of running things right now. Lifetime politicians are only in it for the money and could care less about what their voters think.

I at least give our current congressman (Tim Ryan) credit. THe man never had a real job in his life, but he is at least doing things for the community to encourage growth and a higher standard of living. Then again, I'm comparing him to our former congressman (Jim Trafficant) who was indicted and is now serving time in prison... Jimmy T did a lot as far as getting money for our area, but he was one of those lifetime politicians... And his hair piece was horrible...

Politicians are like lawyers. You can't stand them, but you can't live without them.

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:43 pm

In the US, do you vote for a politician in your area (either democrat or republican) and the party with the most elected members forms a governemnt? Or is it a different system for which party forms the government?

Vogik · Post by **Vogik** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:48 pm

Leviathen wrote:In the US, do you vote for a politician in your area (either democrat or republican) and the party with the most elected members forms a governemnt? Or is it a different system for which party forms the government?

Each state has a certain number of Electoral College Votes, and which ever party gets more votes in that state, they get the Electoral College votes.. So.. I think overall theres something like 255 electoral college votes, and whoever gets most, wins....

The number of votes vary state to state.. like Rhode Island, might get 5, while California might get 28, depending on population.. This system has its faults, but overall it works.

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:15 am

Vogik wrote:
Leviathen wrote:In the US, do you vote for a politician in your area (either democrat or republican) and the party with the most elected members forms a governemnt? Or is it a different system for which party forms the government?
Each state has a certain number of Electoral College Votes, and which ever party gets more votes in that state, they get the Electoral College votes.. So.. I think overall theres something like 255 electoral college votes, and whoever gets most, wins....

The number of votes vary state to state.. like Rhode Island, might get 5, while California might get 28, depending on population.. This system has its faults, but overall it works.

http://www.fec.gov/pages/elecvote.htm

Actually, California has 55 and you need 270 to be elected President. Don't forget, this all dictates the number of representatives each state sends to the House of Representatives. I live in the 16th district of Ohio which basically runs the east side of Akron to the PA boarder and down to south eastern Ohio. I know, the layout doesn't make much sense, but you can thank gerrymandering for that. Anyways, every two years we vote for a new congressman. Typically, the same guy will win because he either runs unopposed or people don't like change very often.

Just for quick reference for everyone outside the U.S., our government is made up of three branches: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. The Executive branch is basically the President and Vide President. The Judicial branch is the Supreme Court and the Legislative branch is Congress. Congress is made up of two houses: the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the House, there are 435 available seats that can be filled and the number of representatives a state can send to the House is based on that state's population which is evaluated every 10 years in the national census. There are only 100 seats in the Senate, but each state sends two senators. 2 senators X 50 states - 100 seats. The legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch enforces the laws, and the judicial branch determines the constitutionality of laws.

That paragraph is the U.S. federal government in its most basic form.

As for how our elections work, here's a quick overview. In the U.S., we have two elections each year. We have the primaries (sometimes called by different names depending on where you are in the country) in the spring. In Ohio, ours is in May. Then, on the first Tuesday in November, we have the general election. The primary election serves as the qualifying round for candidates. During the primary election, candidates will run only against members of their own party (typically Republican or Democrat) for a specific position. You, as a voter, can only vote for which party you are registered to. I am a registered Democrat, so I can only vote for candidates within the Democrat party during the primaries. For the general election, you can vote on whoever you choose. Once a winner for each party is determined in the primaries, those candidates will run against each other for the position in the general election.

For instance, in 2000 John McKain (Republican) ran against George Bush (Republican) in the primaries. Bush won the Republican nomination and thus went on to run against Al Gore (Democrat) in the general election.

Now, positions for state and local governments will vary depending on how the state and local governments are setup. But, what I've detailed above is basically how our federal government works.

Primarily, our government is a two party system: the right leaning Republicans and the left leaning Democrats. Mind you, there is no restriction to the number of parties we can have, it's just that there have always been two major parties as third parties tend to have difficulty forming. As of the 2004 election, the Republicans controlled 231 seats in the House, the Democrats controlled 200 seats, and Independents (those not in either of the main parties) controlled only 1 seat. As of 2004, the Republicans controlled 55 seats in the Senate, the Democrats controlled 44 seats, and Independents controlled only 1 seat.

Supreme court justices are not elected. They are appointed by the president and approved by Congress. Since the president is Republican and the Republicans control Congress, the president has been able to appoint right leaning justices to the bench. Since justices serve lifelong terms (it was done this way so that justices could avoid political campaigns), justices are not appointed very often. Luckily for the president, he has been able to appoint two justices within one year.

And as you all probably know, our President serves a 4 year term and can only serve two consecutive terms. Since Bush won the 2000 election and the 2004 election, he cannot run in 2008.

As you can see, depending on the current situation within the country, it is possible for any one party to practically control the federal government. On the norm, this is not usually the case. As it stands, the Democrats have the ability to retake Congress in the general election this fall. Enough seats will be up for grabs and the approval ratings for the Republican party is low enough that the Dems feel they could possibly retake congress, though highly unlikely in just one election. They could retake enough seats to equalize congress though. The next presidential election is in 2008 and already the candidates are lining up.

Some say the system has its faults. Personally, I think the system is fine. It's the people in the system that screw things up.

Leviathen · Post by **Leviathen** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:17 am

Most first world countries have the three branches. Thank you for the information. What power does the house of representatives have versus the senate?

In Canada, you have your two houses, The House of Commons and The Senate. The country is divided into 307 ridings, and thus you have 307 seats in the House of Commons. Each of the three major parties has someone running in each riding, so you can vote for your NDP(socialist), Liberal, or Conservative candidate (In Quebec you can for the Bloq Quebequois, but no where else in Canada). Whoever gets the most votes gets the seat. Whichever party has the most seats in the end forms a government. The leader of each party is determined internally and only changes when the current leader steps down or is forced to resign.

Elections are typically every four - five years, one must be held by the current government before the five year mark. However, you can have a case where the government "loses the confidence of the house" and that occurs only when there is a minority government (leading party holds less than 50% of the seats). The rest of the parties can bind together and defeat one of the bills the current government is trying to pass, or can justhold a vote of non-confidence.

There is a Senate as well, which is mostly old people who are appointed by the government. Their role is to provide "a second sober look" at any piece of legislation. After something goes through the house of commons it has to go through the same process in the Senate. If the Senate disapproves it can send it back to the house of commons and refuse to sign it. Usually the HoC alters something in it and the Senate approves.

Oh, if you are wondering where the Queen of Canada fits in, she sits at the head of the Senate. The Senate has very little power in Canada.

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:38 am

I hate politics!!!

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:51 pm

Leviathen wrote:Most first world countries have the three branches. Thank you for the information. What power does the house of representatives have versus the senate?

In Canada, you have your two houses, The House of Commons and The Senate. The country is divided into 307 ridings, and thus you have 307 seats in the House of Commons. Each of the three major parties has someone running in each riding, so you can vote for your NDP(socialist), Liberal, or Conservative candidate (In Quebec you can for the Bloq Quebequois, but no where else in Canada). Whoever gets the most votes gets the seat. Whichever party has the most seats in the end forms a government. The leader of each party is determined internally and only changes when the current leader steps down or is forced to resign.

Elections are typically every four - five years, one must be held by the current government before the five year mark. However, you can have a case where the government "loses the confidence of the house" and that occurs only when there is a minority government (leading party holds less than 50% of the seats). The rest of the parties can bind together and defeat one of the bills the current government is trying to pass, or can justhold a vote of non-confidence.

There is a Senate as well, which is mostly old people who are appointed by the government. Their role is to provide "a second sober look" at any piece of legislation. After something goes through the house of commons it has to go through the same process in the Senate. If the Senate disapproves it can send it back to the house of commons and refuse to sign it. Usually the HoC alters something in it and the Senate approves.

Oh, if you are wondering where the Queen of Canada fits in, she sits at the head of the Senate. The Senate has very little power in Canada.

the power of anybody in our three branches falls into how our Checks and Balances are setup. Bascially, the Checks and Balances were created so that noe one person/party gained too much power. This is how it works:

- The Hosue of Representatives and the Senate can propose and pass legislation. In order for the legislation to leave congress, both chambers of Congress must pass it. I forget what the margin a piece of legislation has to pass by though.

- Once the legislation is passed in congress, it goes to the President for approval. The President can then veto or approve the legislation. If he passes it, the legislation becomes law. If he vetos it, the legislation is either trashed or it can go back to congress where the President's veto can be overridden by a 2/3's vote in both chambers of congress.

- Once legislation becomes law, the President can enforce the law through various means. This can include taxation, tariffs, and even force (like the military). The President cannot create laws, but can propose legislation in congress for approval.

- After a law is passed, the Judical branch can determine if the law is constitutional or not. If the law violates the Constitution in the eyes of the courts, the courts can declare the law unconstitutional and the law is retracted. For instance, if Congress and the President passed a law banning our right to bear arms, the courts could declare the law unconstitutional as it would violate the second amentment to the Constitution.

The system can sound complicated, but works quite well. The only way to get around the Checks and Balances is for one party to take all three branches. This is possible, but difficult. This is currently happening right now as we have a Republican president, a Republican controlled congress, and newly appointed Justices that have conservative backgrounds. Now, in now way has anyone violated the rules set forth by Checks and Balances, this is just how things have worked out for the time being. The only real advantage this gives the party is that they can pass legislature that would normally not pass if one of the branches were not controlled by one party.

While obtaining control of all three branches is difficult, maintaining control is more difficult. With currently low approval ratings, the Republican party may lose seats in Congress in the fall election. If the Democrats (or Independents) mount a successful enough campaign, they can retake several seats in Congress and possibly even retake Congress entirely (though higly unlikely).

State governments are mostly setup quite similar to that of our federal goverment. Ohio's state government is composed of the same three branches (though setup a little differently). The way state governments are setup does vary from state to state though.

OK, I'm off to class...

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:24 pm

Post 701 of the GAT thread!

Kurke_Aumea · Post by **Kurke_Aumea** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:29 pm

I hope you didn't count them one at a time. Then again, if you're really bored, I guess that's a good way to pass time...

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:04 pm

or it just says so on the thing next to the thread!

Oh and now I have mastered the art of plasma grenade sickying and sniping at short and medium rangen in Halo 2!

Waucod Meesman · Post by **Waucod Meesman** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:41 pm

Kurke_Aumea wrote:I'm pretty sure I would tick off my entire voting base. For instance, I am a registered Democrat in an area that hasn't seen a Republican elected to the House of Representitives in a good 60 years. Even though I'm a registered Democrat, I have some very anti-Democrat point of views (all of which I will vehemently defend if I need to). Because of that, not many people are willing to discuss politics with me. Hehehe...

Sorry to double post but I just figured out how to use the quotes!!!!!