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Macron Wins Presidential Election

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  1. #11

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    Great job macron, you simply had to have a pulse to win, and you did it!
    I’m Almost as heartened by France’s liberal democracy as I am by Hong Kong’s brilliantly executed CE “election”


  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by DanielFRA:
    I have to go ahead and disagree with you. The system was designed long ago. And 5 years ago was first time that a "non-centric" candidate made it to the shootout.
    Before was typically center-left vs center-right.

    Nowadays I would argue that this binary system helps preventing a radical candidate (so far)
    2 in a row and no one would be surprised by a third suggests to me the election system needs a tweak to promote centrism. If there is no viable alternative the incumbent will feel emboldened and serious policy discussion is not important. That is not good.
    EnglishGamified likes this.

  3. #13

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    Quote Originally Posted by East_coast:
    2 in a row and no one would be surprised by a third suggests to me the election system needs a tweak to promote centrism. If there is no viable alternative the incumbent will feel emboldened and serious policy discussion is not important. That is not good.
    some very powerful interests decided long ago that people shouldn't be able to vote for leaders that represent them. that's why they must preserve current system at all costs, and prevent anybody who would be able to challenge the system to get elected.

    say what you want about LePen, or whoever finished third place, but at least they represented SOME people (the far left and far right are still people AFAIK).

    all macron represents is the interests of not-lepen people. if in the future another challenger to the presidency were to become “too popular” (a.k.a. possessing common sense), the powerful interests would be able to summon another person who couldn't cut it in the business world, give him unlimited funding/exposure, and he would be able to take enough votes away from that popular leader to stop him from getting elected
    Skyhook and EnglishGamified like this.

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by timothwc:
    some very powerful interests decided long ago that people shouldn't be able to vote for leaders that represent them. that's why they must preserve current system at all costs, and prevent anybody who would be able to challenge the system to get elected.

    say what you want about LePen, or whoever finished third place, but at least they represented SOME people (the far left and far right are still people AFAIK).

    all macron represents is the interests of not-lepen people. if in the future another challenger to the presidency were to become “too popular” (a.k.a. possessing common sense), the powerful interests would be able to summon another person who couldn't cut it in the business world, give him unlimited funding/exposure, and he would be able to take enough votes away from that popular leader to stop him from getting elected
    That's utterly ridiculous. Macron evidently had over 27% of the people who voted FOR HIM and didn't chose any of the other candidates in the first round. That made him the #1 in relative terms. and in round 2 he got over 58% of the total population that considered him the better choice under the given (top 2) options.

    There is no "the people" as a single unified group. Wherever a state claims to that, that's a dictatorship. For example Nazi-Germany claimed that, or North Korea.

    A democracy is about compromise and about tolerating that things don't always go my way as others might have different interests and see it differently.
    Sebastien-F likes this.

  5. #15

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    You can scream that democracy is stronger than ever in France, or Europe for that matter. But then, what makes you different than the pro-Beijing crowd who said the Legco elections last year were a “success”?

    DanielFRA and EnglishGamified like this.

  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by timothwc:
    You can scream that democracy is stronger than ever in France, or Europe for that matter. But then, what makes you different than the pro-Beijing crowd who said the Legco elections last year were a “success”?
    Actually I missed the big picture. You made some very, very good points and convinced me. Thanks.

  7. #17

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    Not sure how he can be expected to answer that without potentially being seditious or violating the NSL in today’s HK, but

    all macron represents is the interests of not-lepen people. if in the future another challenger to the presidency were to become “too popular” (a.k.a. possessing common sense), the powerful interests would be able to summon another person who couldn't cut it in the business world, give him unlimited funding/exposure, and he would be able to take enough votes away from that popular leader to stop him from getting elected
    is eerily reminiscent of Trump in different directions.

    While the recent Chilean election seems to prove you can get a choice of “far left” vs “far right” candidates if that is what you desire.

    Not sure why a runoff where people choose the less distressing candidate is necessarily worse than all the alternatives though, or what is supposed to be better if democracy is supposed to be about balancing competing interests rather than a significant minority’s strongly held agenda…

    (but I do appreciate, or at least get intrigued by your other thought-provoking posts in general)

  8. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by AsianXpat0:
    all macron represents is the interests of not-lepen people. if in the future another challenger to the presidency were to become “too popular” (a.k.a. possessing common sense), the powerful interests would be able to summon another person who couldn't cut it in the business world, give him unlimited funding/exposure, and he would be able to take enough votes away from that popular leader to stop him from getting elected
    I hope that I am wrong, but this reminds me of how we got seriously fooled in Belarus in 1994. People back then voted hard for Lukashenko but in fact he simply represented anti-Kebich people. So they kinda voted against Vyacheslav Kebich and chose another pro-Russian president. In fact, they both were pro-Russian "Trojan horses" saboteuring elections just to not let the pro-Belarusian party led by Zianon Pozniak to win. And they successfully accomplished their mission, now it is clear. Actually, people were so happy electing Lukashenko, back then he proposed economic growth, freedom, democracy

  9. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by DanielFRA:
    I have to go ahead and disagree with you. The system was designed long ago. And 5 years ago was first time that a "non-centric" candidate made it to the shootout.
    Before was typically center-left vs center-right.

    Nowadays I would argue that this binary system helps preventing a radical candidate (so far)
    5 years ago was not the first time, did you forget about 2002?
    blandy62 likes this.

  10. #20

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    Australia is next, federal election on 21st May. We dont have the concept of "left" or "right", just two dickheads to choose from, Scomo vs Albo, which are both horrible choices. On a single day of campaigning last week, Albo was asked by reporters what is the current unemployment rate in Australia and didn't know, Scomo was chased out of his event by a mob of protesters wearing hawaiian shirts chanting "He doesnt hold a hose" (referring to his decision to go on a holiday to Hawaii during the bushfire crisis a few years ago). Thats the latest from down under

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