Fine Centrist Whine
by digby
He's "doing the best he can":
Nick Clegg rounded on critics who "vilify" his party's role in coalition, insisting he is doing the "best I can" to shape government policies around Liberal Democrat values.
[...]
Clegg said those who argue that AV would lead to more coalitions and "broken promises", yet claim to want a "different kind of politics" where parties can work together in the national interest, "have to grow up a bit". "Compromise is not a betrayal," he said.
The Lib Dem leader, who has been lambasted for his party's U-turn on tuition fees and its position on the pace and scale of public spending cuts, said "difficult compromises" had to be made because the party had only 57 MPs out of 650.
"If people want more Liberal Democrat policies, the way to get them is to elect a majority Liberal Democrat government. That didn't happen," he said.
"In the meantime, I will continue to make what are sometimes difficult compromises, but ones which are always shaped as best I can by the liberal values I hold dear."
He criticised opponents on the left and right, saying: "You can't claim to stand for a new kind of politics, for a new kind of pluralism, and then vilify those who try to practise it."
Clegg described AV as a "simple update" to the electoral system, intended to give people more power and choice.
"It means all MPs will have to try to win the support of a majority of their constituents instead of relying on their core vote," he added.
"It means they will have to engage with people who are not their core supporters, listening to a wider range of views and bringing more people into the democratic process. It will help to reduce the complacency of MPs with jobs for life in safe seats.
[...]
"We aren't going to enter into a Maoist, perpetual revolution," he said. "This is a once in a blue moon opportunity to change the electoral system.
"It's completely wrong to somehow suggest this is a stepping stone for something else. This is the change and it should be considered only on those merits."
Without getting into the merits of the UK's AV vote (proportional representation) about which I don't know enough to comment, I bring this up to illustrate the similarity of rhetoric we hear from the Unity Pony and "Post-partisan" people in the US. Essentially, what is happening in Britain is the same thing that happened here, it's just that here we have two parties with three factions instead of three parties. But both countries have the left, the right and the centrists --- who align with the right and then whine to the left about how much it hurts them more than it hurts us and how they can't help it. Same old, same old.
I just bring this up as a bit of a cautionary tale to those who believe that our problems could be solved by a parliamentary system. Theoretically, it would be easier for the people to dissolve the government when they go too far. But as we've seen in Britain, it also makes it easier for them to go too far in the first place.
The problem is bigger than the political system. It's about the influence of Big Money and an economic belief system that serves them. And it's global.
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