Cat Party

[rebeccmeister]

A part of me really wants to start a political party called the Cat Party, because of aspects of the political platforms of BOTH major parties in this country that I disagree and am dissatisfied with. It might be analogous to the Pirate Party in Iceland. And I know I'm far from the minority on feeling dissatisfied with both major political parties - that's how a LOT of Americans feel. My thinking is that the Cat Party would work with existing political parties when appropriate, but would take its own strong stance on issues where neither major party is stepping up. Also, internet cats.

Some of the key issues are summarized in a New York Times article on How France may sound the "death knell" for social democracy. It's useful to look at how matters are handled in other countries just to get some perspective, because right now a lot of Americans are just caught up in a massive freak-out.

A big part of the issue, to me, is that I just don't see free-market capitalism working to serve the majority of people. "Too big to fail" sounds like the opposite attitude from the period where the US went through and broke up monopolies, and consolidations are continuing to happen, left and right. Have there ever been good systems for breaking up concentrations of wealth (+ power)? I'd be interested to learn more on the subject.

Also, on rhetoric and persuasion: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/02/the-simple-psychological-trick-to-political-persuasion/515181/

Comments

[ivy]

Yeah, I'm struggling with the same thing. I am far more liberal than conservative but I find the authoritarian stances both major parties are taking very troubling. I am against mass surveillance and against wars and against building walls and deportations. I am for parks and science and the environment, public health and welfare and the advancement of human knowledge. I'm not a capitalist, decidedly not, but I've seen the history on how communism turns into exploitative oligarchy with a quickness. There is no party for me, but if you won't pick a team, most people who are defensively tribal due to feeling embattled regard you with suspicion.

I am doing my best to be a bridge building diplomat, but everyone is cornered-cat screaming and few people are listening. It's not going so well. Single issue nonprofit is okay so far at least, but that's one of 492308209348 problems we have. Thanks for the interesting links!

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure you're Cat Party material. :^)

I think you're right about the single-issue nonprofit element. For me, for a long time, that has been bicycling nonprofits, but I haven't been as actively involved in that lately. It may be time to find a slightly different focus.

[ivy]

Hooray Cat Party! [grin]

It's weird that I can tell how serious I am about the nonprofit route by how much I have changed my behavior in small ways. I dumped my dancepop radio station for my local NPR affiliate. Hearing the latest any time I drive isn't *fun*, but it's totally relevant now so I'm sucking it up.

We'll see how I do with my goal of being for-everyone and non-partisan and bridge-building... I just invited a bunch of rebel Republicans (the Never Trump crowd) to comment on my nonprofit's approach and volunteer with us if they like what they see. Better to find out early than later and more publicly if we can drink our own Kool-Aid or not, heh. Come on, strange bedfellow friends. Let's get to work. [grin]