# Think there's no Party difference? You're an apathetic Lefty. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 6, 2002, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585 "2002-11-06T18:22:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585/41 "2002-11-08T03:35:41Z")
Quote: originally posted by me: conservative: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” > [@](#): > > _originally posted by Stoid_ > \*_JFK was a conservative?!?_ Bwaahahahahah, FINALY!, I have been _waiting_ for that. Thank you. **Stoid** , I am glad somebody finally caught it - you get the big plush gorrilla from the top shelf. After I alluded to it the _first_ time, I thought about putting a foot note saying something like “yes, I know it was JFK, but still…” Instead, just because I just loved the irony of using JFK to descibe the conservatives, I decided to have a little fun and see if anybody caught it. It took 28 posts, and even then only when I alluded to it a _second_ time. I even had to spell it out. Y’all are slipping. Mind you, I wasn’t trolling here or playing some trick on you all (well, maybe a little trick by leaving out the foot note and waiting, but hey). I **do** stand by my first post. I never said anything I didn’t mean. I think that particular JFK quote, even though he was damn near socialist at times, describes the conservatives of today better than any one sentence I can think of. What can I say? I love irony. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585/42 "2002-11-08T04:03:53Z")
Aw, Hell. Look at that. Mod! Mod! Can I get a mod! Please, anybody seen a mod! Never around when you need 'em. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585/43 "2002-11-08T18:10:31Z")
Seems to me Canada currently has only _one_ functioning national party, accepting the responsibilities of governing an entire nation and therefore remaining close to the center. There are, however, several fragmented regional organizations with agendas morally pure of any connection with the possibility of actually realizing any of it. Disagree? You have to recognize the effect of structural differences between a system in which total control is held by a single party, with the entire government bouncing from one agenda to another, vs. one in which checks and balances exist not only between branches but between parties as well. It is politically impossible as well as structurally impossible for any major party in the US to be very far off the center because that’s the only place power exists. Wingers _cannot_ take power, unlike in a parliamentary system - I would suggest that that’s a fundamental superiority of the US system, too. It’s useless to complain about or condemn either party for recognizing the need to have the power to do things, and the need for compromise to do so. Changes come from nudging the parties from the inside, not throwing bombs or curses from the outside. There are differences between the two, and they do represent condensations of the broader political spectrum when tempered with reality. That’s just how it works, and how it’s forced to work, and it isn’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585/44 "2002-11-08T23:46:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gadarene \* > \*\*The demographics with the lowest turnout, ethnic minorities and the poor, do indeed tend to hold more consistently (economically) liberal views. But you think their low turnout is due to _apathy_? Internalized despair, perhaps, is a better description. \*\* A friend of mine lives in a **very** small town in the middle of nowhere – one might almost call it a redneck town. She lives alone with her two small kids and survives on child support payments from her ex-husband. She’s voted in every election since she turned 18, **except** for this one. Why did she miss this one? Because despite the fact that she registered to vote several months ago, the county she lives in doesn’t **think** she’s registered to vote! Such an oversight would be scandalous to the point of civil suits in a well-off urban metropolis, but out in the boondocks where she lives it’s just one more “oops” from her local government. I wonder how many other small-poor-town folks didn’t vote simply because their local governments didn’t have their acts together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/think-theres-no-party-difference-youre-an-apathetic-lefty/135585.md?page=2)