Iowa Republicans cast the first votes of the 2012 White House campaign today, with Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in a high-stakes battle to win the party's nomination. Voters will gather in schools, libraries, and other public spots across Iowa to render their judgment.
Basil Venitis supports Ron Paul for president of USA. But in case Ron Paul did not get the Republican nomination, Venitis would support Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party. Governor Johnson has an outstanding record for vetoing legislation as former governor of New Mexico. He vetoed more bills than all other governors in the country combined, stopping the expansion of Big Government.
Ron Paul's whistle-stop tour of Iowa, done in concert with his son Rand Paul, yielded enormous crowds. The Polk County Whistle Stop in Downtown Des Moines attracted more than 700 supporters, the Scott County Whistle Stop held in Davenport drew more than 350 people, and the Linn County Whistle Stop held in Cedar Rapids yielded more than 300 people.
In addition, the Black Hawk County Whistle Stop in Cedar Falls drew more than 300 supporters, and the Cerro Gordo County Whistle Stop in Mason City attracted more than 200 voters.
"The excitement is palpable as Ron and Rand Paul make Ron's closing arguments to the hundreds of supporters who braved the cold, windy weather to see the Pauls. We hope this level of energy, so unique to Ron Paul's candidacy, propels us to a strong top-three finish in tomorrow's caucus," said Ron Paul 2012 Iowa Chairman Drew Ivers.
Public support for democracy is a sensitive resource. If you convince people that they can follow an election on TV without ever having to take part, it will be difficult to win them back. Kleptocrats claim the people are well represented in parliament. But this is an illusion, because those who never vote are not included. The real number of citizens who feel represented in government grows smaller all the time, and this is the main byproduct of kleptocracy.
A rationally ignorant voter is a voter who deems it to be in his interest not to stay informed. Since learning the various candidates' positions on a host of issues is costly and the chances of an election turning on a single voter's ballot are miniscule, many voters rationally choose not to be very informed about the issues.
When one couples this with the argument that public opinion generally favors policies that not only make voters feel good or moral or more patriotic, but also make for policy outcomes that most economists and more educated voters view as pernicious, it is hard to feel much confidence in the policy that is generated in a democracy. From this perspective, politicians who seek to be re-elected are justified in supplying voters with the policies they want even though they are unsound.
A second claim has to do with the effects of concentrated benefits and diffused costs on policymaking. Politicians frequently pay lip service to "the public good," but if a politician is to be successful (that is, stay in office), he or she will typically support policy that is aimed at benefiting the well-organized and informed few rather than the unorganized and uninformed many. As a result, legislation tends to favor special interests over the public good, and once a policy is in place, it is nearly impossible to get rid of it.
Public choice theorists believe that politicians, like everyone else, act in their own self-interest. If consumers maximize utility, firms maximize profits, and politicians maximize votes, what do bureaucrats maximize? The answer is troubling: Bureaucrats have an incentive to maximize the size of the bureaucracy under their control. Governments don't shrink; they grow. Never has the triumph of hope over reality been better illustrated than by the steady stream of politicians who promise to pay for new programs by reducing waste and inefficiency in the existing government.
Democratic politics leads naturally to deficits. Politicians typically insist that they intend to constrain the growth of government spending, but in reality they seldom are able to overcome the natural incentives of increasing government spending. Greek elections bring Pyrrhic victories. Graecokleptocrats are more concerned with elections than in making real spending cuts. We should keep in mind the words of Pyrrhus after the battle of Asculum: Another such victory and we will be undone. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Graecokleptocrats do not want to open the parliamentary candidates list and allow people to apply to become an MP. They do not want to open up the talent that is available in Parliament. If you believe in public service, if you want to help your party clean up politics, if you share your party's values, you cannot become a candidate in a Greek political party, unless you are a part of the mafia of that party.
In Greece, there are no real political parties, but political mafias! There are no political leaders, but political godfathers. Any MP who does not kowtow to the godfather automatically is expelled from the mafia. The two main political mafias, Pasok and Nea Democratia, have destroyed Greece and debased the Greek soul.
Graecokleptocrats do not want to see open primaries where everyone in a constituency can vote for the next candidate. Many countries have had open primaries for many of their candidates for forthcoming elections and they have been really successful. Opening up the hall and saying to anyone in the constituency – whichever party they belong to – come along and vote for the next candidate has worked fantastically well in many countries.
Smart words are more effective than smart bombs! Mighty words of a charismatic keynote speaker can transform your people to a new dimension of organizational climate, efficiency, self-actualization, enthusiasm, belonging, and motivation. To get such a speaker to your conference, write to keynote.speakers@yahoo.com
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