The slippery slope or true democracy
Bookworm on Jul 17 2006 at 11:56 am | Filed under: Culture, Europe
I can’t decide if this is the beginning of the end for any hope of normal society in Holland, or if it is an appropriate event in a free society, which allows issues to be aired and decided upon by the voters:
A Dutch court refused Monday to ban a political party whose main goal is to lower the age of sexual consent from 16 to 12. The judge said it was the voters’ right to judge the appeal of political parties.
The party has only three known members, one of whom was convicted of molesting an 11-year-old boy in 1987. Widely dubbed the “pedophile” party, it is unlikely ever to win a seat in parliament. The group would need around 60,000 votes, and pollsters estimate it would get fewer than 1,000.
Opponents had asked The Hague District Court to bar the party from registering for national elections in November, arguing that children have the right not to be confronted with the party’s platform.
“Freedom of expression, freedom … of association, including the freedom to set up a political party, can be seen as the basis for a democratic society,” Judge H. Hofhuis said in his ruling.
“These freedoms give citizens the opportunity to, for example, use a political party to appeal for change to the constitution, law, or policy.”
Disgusting as the thought of this political party is, I’m included to agree with the judge that, as long as the pedophile “politicans” aren’t actively engaged in pedophilia, which is illegal, they have a right to a voice in the political process — no matter how disgusting that voice is. Your thoughts?
Email This Post To A Friend
One Response to “The slippery slope or true democracy”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
One reason why the American system is of the Jacksonian “winner takes all the spoils” version, is because this way we are never going to have a majority government coalitioning itself with a minor party of “60,000″ constituents. Never, ever, ever.
No extremist can hold “portfolios” in our government via elected officials, simply because the party that wins the plurality of votes wins it all. If you added up the David Dukes and the Michael Moores, they might actually win a majority. Judging by those who voted for Kerry, 48%.
What I think is that multi party systems look good on paper, but they are a diaster in application.