I think we all know that one reason why the incumbents are hard to beat is that we have a badly warped democracy, a sick system in which the incumbents get away with using the resources of the country to forward the interests of their party. The release of the nation’s resources is timed to make people feel especially beholden. The individuals who get the rewards, they and their families are very likely to support the party at the polls.
I will add that when you put third parties in the two-party (First Past The Post (FPTP)) system, especially one that is warped, it becomes even harder to beat the incumbents. I hear people saying all the right things about third parties, except for how they impact the warped two-party system.
Properly, third parties in the FPTP should be choosing, supporting the lesser of the two evils, instead of confusing the people. And what if they don’t see a lesser in the two evils? Well, that is saying something similar to what Brother Sedi Elrington said when he entered the second UDP leadership race —that there was no difference between John and Patrick.
Of course we should go into this matter (put in the numbers to back up what I’m saying) in more depth, but I’ll have to put that off, for now. Okay, welcome 2020. The people of Belize know that the incumbent is spent —corrupt by natural inclination and by being in power way too long, but there are two third parties in the race.
Don’t get me wrong; the third parties bring valuable new ideas, and they put pressure on the big parties. But in the FPTP they skew the election in favor of the incumbents, and that is a bad thing when our democracy desperately needs the incumbents fu goh.
US elections not so big a dilemma this time
A feature story on NBC News this week was about the Democrats’ challenger for their presidency, Joe Biden, vowing to do big things in the first 100 days for LGBTQ rights in that country if they elect him into office. It matters not who the Democrats chose to be their candidate; they are all in for the gay rights.
The Republicans don’t say it outright, but if Donald Trump becomes their next president there will be major cuts to their Social Security scheme, and cuts to medical help for people who are poor or in their middle class. Look, anyone who doesn’t know that that is what the Republican Party is after over there, has been able to lie to themselves or bury their heads in the sand. Many Belizeans in America support the gays, and none are for any cuts to Social Security or Medicare, so the majority are supporting the Democrats.
The majority of Belizeans in Belize think the gays are moving too fast, and that would make them soft on the Republicans, but Belizeans in Belize definitely don’t want the US to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits for the less well off, because that would be a direct hit on their families and friends, and an indirect hit here. A lot of us do depend on some financial support from family in America.
At the time of the last US election, many Belizeans in Belize were torn because of the Democrats’ love for the gay agenda, but one factor that could make the majority of these Belizeans rest easy about praying for the Democrats this time around is that the Americans just installed a new judge on their Supreme Court, a judge who doesn’t bow to the gay offensive. The way their court is set now, it is 6-3 against the uppity LGBTQ, so Mr. Biden, if he wins, will not be able to sail through with that 100 days mission.
Intriguingly, it is only the present vice-president of the US, Mike Pence, who gets fever at night when he thinks about that advancing gay army. Biden is a flaming gay-lover; his second-in-line, Kamala Harris, is a flaming gay-lover; Trump is a lukewarm gay-lover, and Pence is a definite homophobe.
Wa, those with the blinders, I expect you know that the Trumps held a gay pride rally in Florida, with one of Trump’s daughters as the keynote speaker. The gays aren’t buying it; they say it is just pandering for their votes. Don’t underestimate that crowd; they know that the core of Trump’s supporters would tear out their hearts and eat their livers. Trump is safe territory for the gays, but Trump-Pence is hot water.
An eye-opening bit in a report on the Trump pride rally in the Washington Post was that one of these groups in America that monitor the activities of their leaders had found that Trump-Pence had “rolled back more than 180 protections for LGBTQ communities.” Belize, we are told to become more informed, to study our Constitution; well, I can tell you that you won’t find 180 protections in there for any of us. You see where our gay friends are going, what they are after?
Our gay leaders have been meeting with our political leaders, and on one hand I’ll say it is a good thing that these discussions are taking place and we are working out our own issues. Moving to the other hand, this group that has stolen all the colors of the rainbow, and are moving hard to take all the letters of the alphabet too, how come they want to make our elections about how everything affects them? Whatever happened to asking what you can do for your country?
The big issues in our country: our economy, our healthcare, our crime situation, our education and transportation, all of these big issues and how they affect all of us — oh no, they are selfishly narrowing it down to, them. You see the splintering of a little nation? These big countries, they can absorb the blows; we lee ones will get hambog.
Returning to the election over there, there’s the bread and butter issue which pushes us in the arms of the Democrats, and there is the gay issue, the fear that Mr. Biden and Mrs. Kamala would be dictating to us how to run our affairs. Ah, we can rest easy, because that Democrat pair have a roadblock that will force them to slow down the pace of giving away our letters. The Supreme Court over there is 2-1 against their ambition.
Why we like “learning experience” so much
Reporting on the debate on Wednesday night, the Amandala said, “What happened last night will have to go down as a learning experience”, and I have to say we really have little respect for what our brothers and sisters in foreign countries do; that’s why we have to laan for ourselves, although the blueprint for doing things right has already been paid for by others. The Amandala did note that the organizers did very, very well in the balance of payments, though, because there were more ads than show.
Really, how do you have the RIGHTIST leader of the Belize People’s Front and the LEFTIST leader of the Belize Progressive Party in a debate, and they end up discussing joining ranks? Was it Ashley Rocke who chose and phrased the questions?
Democracy is not a tea party, and the two candidates bear no blame for that soft show on Wednesday night.
Big effort by the BPM
We recognize that the huge effort by Brothers Paul Morgan, Bobby Lopez, Hubert Enriquez and colleagues is our first real serious attempt at redistricting, and we are to pray that their failing with the injunction in the court (which I didn’t support because we have to vote and get it over with, yes) won’t deter them from persevering in their sacrifice for the nation, so that in the near future we see the necessary changes.