Political Satire
- Thread starter Luxman
- Start date
Luxman
#TRE45ON
Most people don't keep up with world news. You should write a caption explaining each post.
Luxman
#TRE45ON
I don't understand European satire. Why are they using the queens hat instead of a crown?
Too much inbreeding in royal families, maybe it's time to end the monarchy.
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DrakeM
Careful with that axe, Eugene
I think it was genius, actually laughed out loud. As for ending the monarchy, other than tourism, national pride, and warm fuzzy feelings, they provide a valuable service - not enforcing a president on a country. After being a political junkie watching how the world operates, give me a constitutional monarchy any day vs. a political system like the U.S. has with a president with real executive power. Frankly if the UK ended monarchy, I'd argue for Canada to continue on with their own - make Wayne Gretzky King of Canada and we could continue as-is with a quirky but highly-effective form of government not constantly locked in a three-way contest trying to get anything done but still with enough guard rails to prevent insanity.
Luxman
#TRE45ON
I don't get the joke, why the queens hat?
No system is perfect. Canadians may have a more peaceful and better quality of life, but Americans have more freedom and more laws protecting their freedom.
@DrakeM I'd love to hear your thoughts on that one.
DrakeM
Careful with that axe, Eugene
Okay, you dragged me back. The quote was:
"No system is perfect. Canadians may have a more peaceful and better quality of life, but Americans have more freedom and more laws protecting their freedom."
Agree, no system is perfect and in general I do agree with that statement. However, whatever freedoms Americans have that Canadians don't, I either don't miss them, am unaware of them, or actively disagree with - e.g. gun laws leading to the unthinkable carnage I see on the news every day. It also works the other way too: Canadian women don't have the abortion restrictions imposed on so many American women in red states.
I think though that "system of government" and "freedoms allowed in a society" are not the same thing and I guess I wasn't clear about that in my initial statement which was intended as a comment on "system of government". Look around the world and I'm sure you can find examples of countries living in misery under both a constitutional monarchy (harder to find) and an executive president (easy to find) and visa versa.
What I was implying (and should have said) is that in general, I believe that in progressive constitutional monarchies like the UK, Canada, Australia, etc. it is easier to govern and change governments and policies than in an executive president plus two house congress like in the USA. The exception of course is that a strongman president and weak congress makes it trivial to govern (for the president), e.g. Russia or whatever Trump was attempting on Jan. 6.
I don't want to write a treatise here so I'll just throw out a couple points why I think this true:
- In a constitutional monarchy, you do have leader like a president, the Prime Minister, who has many of the same executive functions but can be replaced at any time if he/she loses the confidence of the governing party - recent example in the UK with Elizabeth May. Also, Parliament can take a "no confidence" vote at any time to topple the government and force an election if the government leadership go off the rails.
- The Prime Minister and all has ministers are members of Parliament and have to sit in Parliament and answer opposition questions every day from the opposition - makes for great political debates and news clips. Imagine Biden and all his Secretaries having to sit in Congress and answer daily questions.
- Since there is only one elected body - the House of Commons, there is no gridlock and things can get done quickly (so long as they are legal and constitutional). The check on this is the Senate (Canada) or House of Lords (UK) which are appointed and mostly act as a rubber stamp but can and do send legislation back for changes if it goes too far. Last line of defense for bad legislation is that all legislation needs royal assent and must be signed by the King (UK) or King's representative (Governor General in Canada). In practice this truly is a rubber stamp but the power to block insanity is still there if never actually exercised - that would be a true constitutional crisis no government who wants to stay in power would risk.
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Supafly
Retired Mod
For those not as aware of world politics, this is about the country Turkey, where longtime ruler Erdogan is up for re-election... or not...
I'm sure this clarifies a lot of things - and I'm glad you did, because Turkey is a hotspot for refugees right now, many coming to the US/Canada. Many of them are Kurds.
It's a very interesting dynamic - Kurds in Turkey aren't like Palestinians in Israel or Jews in Nazi Germany. There are Kurdish political parties with actual representation in Kurdish parliament. There are Kurdish judges in the judiciary, and Kurds are in the Turkish police/military/security forces, and even subject to conscription like every other Turk.
And yet many of them face discrimination, to the point were a large number are (allegedly) are fleeing persecution from the country.
Hope other users will join in on the discussion.
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