Thread by @MerryMichaelW

#ProportionalRepresentation - a thread: 🧵

Many so-called "progressives" openly espouse the cause of PR, having been fooled into believing that is is somehow "fairer". 😒😒😒

More on this, later.

But, it is not - is is a recipe for fragmentation, and is the #Establishments best weapon against #WorkingClass #Solidarity, and should be shunned by any #Socialist , worth their salt. 🤔

Look at Israel, and Italy, to see and understand the PR end game.

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What PR DOES, and is DESIGNED to DO, is to funnel footloose votes towards the MIDDLE, and reinforce the so called #Centrists. It FRAGMENTS the big battalions of left and right, and gives WHOLLY DISPROPORTIONATE POWER, to the brokers of the central parties.

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These central parties ALWAYS align with the right - ALMOST WITHOUT EXCEPTION. See the long history of the Liberals, and the Liberal Democrats throughout the twentieth and the beginning of this century.

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The one exception was the Lib-Lab pact, and the price extracted was PR for the EU "Parliamentary" elections!!! Bear in mind that that body has no power, and that the constitution of the EU is wholly neoliberal, conducted by unelected bureaucrats.

liberalhistory.org.uk/history/joint-…

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But look rightwards. Other beneficiaries of PR are the small fascist offshoots, who are also given their chance of election in certain constituencies. And the history of PR in Scandinavia and elsewhere, tells us that this gives such parties their one real chance of growth.

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Italy is just the latest victim of the *fairness* of PR, with the prime example of Apartheid Israel, as always, leading from the very dregs of humanity.

And the Palestinians are the sorry collateral damage of this bastardised version of "democracy".

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Let us now take a closer look at the claims of "fairness" in PR. The person who has written the most in-depth reviews of the problem is without doubt @davmidd , and here are the two critical articles:
davemiddletons.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-ca…
davemiddletons.blogspot.com/2021/04/we-don…

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"Last week I made it clear that I was rejecting the fairness claims of both FPTP and PR. For people who had embraced PR as a left-wing cause this was quite disconcerting." - @davmidd

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"But, let’s be clear those people on the left who are telling you that PR is part of that conversation are modern day snake oil sellers. By definition, a capitalist political system favours the capitalist class and their acolytes." - @davmidd

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Perhaps our problem is not with FPTP, or any other system of voting, but the translation of those votes into the political agenda? 🤔 In other words, do we want REPRESENTATIVE democracy at all, or/and for our voices to be heard in the daily political agenda?

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***"The fact is that in delegating your responsibility for decision making to somebody else, you undermine your own claim to be an equal citizen."***
- @davmidd

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"As the French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau put it in 1762: “... yet it may be asked how a man can be at once free and forced to conform to wills which are not his own.” *The fact is he can’t and to bring this up to date, neither can a woman.*" - @davmidd

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To come towards the finale of this triffid-like thread, there are several problems that have to predate ANY change in electoral law. 🤔

WE have to ELECT people who will enact what we want - in other words, WE need to LEARN how to WIN elections!!! 😒😒😒

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Secondly, in a system with NO WRITTEN CONSTITUTION, we have to find a way to make ANY such changes STICK. Again, in other words, several VASTLY IMPORTANT issues take mighty precedence over the tinkering with the electoral system.

🧵 ENDS. Thank you, if you got this far ... 😊

@davmidd @RevBluesSusie @WPB_Tris @communicipalist

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