As the Fourth and final Session of the Fiftieth Congress
(4·L 2017-18) is well underway, Patria is hitting the Fifty First Congress
campaign trail along with the 2018 bicentennial celebration (see above for Patria Post's first bicentennial stamp issue). Here in a nutshell
is what you need to know for Patria’s upcoming election:
Election Day: April 21, 2018 (Third Saturday in April).
April 14 in Fredonia. Advance polls in other Precincts beginning on or about
April 12, 2018.
Inauguration Day: June 30, 2018
What’s at stake: 333 seats in Patria’s 51st Congress
(LI Con. Pat.), elections for Precinct legislatures and local city, county or
demi-precinct councils in some of Patria’s 13 Precincts and the Federal District of Castoropolis (FDC). There is also an
upper house in Patria, like the US
and Canadian Senate or UK House of Lords, but its members are selected by the
Precinct legislatures, not by direct popular vote.
How members of Congress are elected: Mixed-member proportional
representation (MMP). As in
Israel, lists of
candidates are prepared by each party and seats are awarded in proportion to
the percentage of votes received in each precinct. One-third of the seats (111)
are filled by local candidates winning a plurality in their electoral district or riding.
MMP, as in
Germany,
New Zealand and many other countries, is an idea
whose time has come in
Canada
but will likely never happen thanks to Justin Trudeau’s
broken 2015 campaign promise of electoral reform.
Congressional apportionment per precinct:
Caesarea – 61 seats
Federal District of Castoropolis
– 38
Nova Columbia
– 36
Lazuria – 27
Centralia
– 25
Aeolia – 24
Arboria – 21
Antioch
– 19
Ambrosia – 17
Canardiere – 16
Mauretania – 15
Pottsylvania – 13
Haldimania – 12
Fredonia – 9
Term of office: Four year term ending June 30, 2022.
Vote counting: paper ballots counted by hand. No hanging
chads. This ain’t Florida 2000!
Follow on Twitter @Patriavotes2018
– a Twitter account devoted exclusively to the 2018 election campaign.
Non-election tweets from Patria will be found @Patria1818, which you should also follow if you’re not already.
Hashtags: #PatriaVotes2018 and #51stCongress, along with the #Patria200 hashtag
for Patria’s bicentennial in 2018.
Following is some basic background information on Patria’s
many and varied political parties. Numbers in [ ]’s indicate the number of
seats held in the 50th Congress.
Amrita Party [68]
“Embracing Patria”, “Love and serve”, established in 2001 as
a party for Amma’s devotees with Amma as House leader in Congress, where she
represents the Precinct of Arboria. Generally liberal-progressive, reflecting
the political views of the vast majority of Amma’s western devotees in the
macro-world (notwithstanding that conservatives and even supporters of Donald
Trump go for Amma’s darshan too!). Merged briefly with the SRM (see below) in 2006
and is rumored to be merging with the Social Democrats (q.v.) for 2018.
Among the highlights of the
Amrita Party's achievements since 2002:
- Inclusion of Amma's
teachings and bhajans (devotional songs) in the curriculum of many of
Patria's elementary schools.
- Opening of a branch of the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIMS) hospital in Patria.
- Establishment of a campus
of the Amrita University in Patria.
- Establishment of a
permanent Amma ashram in Patria, in Karunanagar, Caesarea,
easily accessible via the Caesarea Coast Line of the Castoropolis and
Caesarea Railways (CCR).
- Addition of Amrita Television to all basic cable
TV services in Patria.
Standard disclaimer: The Amrita Party of Patria exists only
in the unrecognized country ("micronation") known as the Inner Realm
of Patria
(Antarbhumi Ramrajya) and has no connection whatsoever with
the
MA Center,
Mata Amritanandamayi Math,
Amma Canada, or any
actual Amma-related organization in any recognized country of the world.
SRM (Swadeshi Ramrajya
Movement) [55]
“Bring the jobs home” “Make Patria great again” Small-c
conservative Hindu nationalist, economic protectionist, social conservatives
(e.g. pushing “modest dress” for women), Patria First. Inspired by and quite
similar to Narendra Modi’s
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) in
India. Originally
known as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the SRM has its origins in the
1960s hippie counterculture heyday but didn’t become a mainstream party until
Patria’s 1989-90 Dharmic Revolution. After the 2006 election, Amma’s devotees
merged the SRM into the Amrita Party. But by 2010 the SRM-Amrita coalition fell
apart as economic conservative remnants of the old SRM bolted from Amrita (in
large measure as a result of the 2008-09 economic meltdown), took a turn to the
right and revived the SRM with the initials standing for something new.
Chakra Party [59]
“No gurus, just right”, “transformation not transcendence”
yoga/new age liberal. Another party that has its roots in the 1960s hippie era
but didn’t become established until Patria’s Dharmic Revolution, led by hippies
and new-agers who never really left the 60s. Secular party for the
“spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) folks – mostly westerners who grew up with Judaism or
Christianity – who do yoga and practice some kind of Eastern-based spirituality
but steer clear of the H-word (i.e. Hinduism) or who do not identify as
devotees of Amma.
National Union [26]
“Obedience and respect for authority”, “where a man
belongs”, “testosterone in your balls, NU on your ballot”, the macho, populist,
blue lives matter (“there’s no such thing as a bad cop”), law and order
National Union has its roots dating from the mid-19th century as a
small-c conservative party. National Unionists once dominated Patria in the
1950s and 60s as a bland, centrist party like Ontario’s Bill Davis-era Tories. They should
have died of irrelevance post-Dharmic Revolution, but since the 1990s the NU recast
itself to become the leader in the men’s rights movement, thumbed its nose at
soft-on-crime liberals and has pushed every right wing law and order issue,
e.g. bringing back public executions, broken windows policing and even racial
profiling for public safety. Always seems to punch above its weight, even if
violent crime is not a serious issue in Patria.
Jungle Party [28]
“Have a take, don’t suck”, inspired by
Jim Rome, a leading US
sports talk radio personality who is heard in Patria as well as in the
US and
Canada
on the CBS Sports network. The typical Jungle party voter is an unemployed or
minimally employed 30-something male living in his parents’ basement, playing
online games and with no girlfriend to speak of. But the party has apparently
drawn men who might otherwise vote National Union.
Social Democrats [49]
“Go forward!” “Progress with a purpose”, old-line social
democratic party from the macro-world, based on Canada’s
NDP and currently inspired by Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. A well-established
workers’ progressive labor party since the 1930s, Social Democrats enjoyed a
surge of popularity in 2014 and can likely expect to grow even more in 2018,
riding the coat-tails (or Union-made in USA suit) of Bernie Sanders. Despite
being an old-left democratic socialist party, the SD has little tolerance for
politically correct busybody do-gooders, vegan moral high-grounders, social
justice warriors, Israel as an apartheid state, so-called Cultural Marxism,
“micro-aggressions”, “safe spaces”, the let’s-hate-Whitey common leftist belief
that only White people – particularly White heterosexual males – can be racist,
and snuffing out free speech (i.e. discussion of unpopular or conservative
views) on college campuses. Closely aligned with the Amrita Party and rumoured
to be merging with it as Campaign 2018 begins.
Green Party [13]
“Bikes not cars” Macro-world party that has found a foothold
in Patria, particularly following Patria’s unofficial endorsement of the US
Green Party’s candidate Jill Stein in the 2016 presidential election. Like the
Green Parties of Canada, the U.S. and Europe, the Greens of Patria appear to be
leftist, progressive, bike-riding, Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging
environmentalists. But Patria’s Greenies have been outed as economic
conservatives and even Ayn Rand-style free-enterprise capitalists disguised as
politically correct left-wingers and moral high-grounders.
Libertarian Party [7]
Another party from the macro-world, trotting out the usual
“less government, more freedom” mantra. The Libertarian party of Patria, like
Libertarian Parties in the
United States and
Canada, is conservative on economic
issues but very liberal on "free choice" issues such as legalization
of drugs or abortion. There really is not much need for a Libertarian party in
Patria, since Patria has become quite libertarian since the 1990s -
decriminalizing drugs for all practical purposes, no restrictions on abortion,
and strongly free-speech (in Patria, there are no laws criminalizing the
propagation of hate speech such as Holocaust denial).
Fringe groups,
one-issue parties, assorted nutbars [28]
A number of micro-parties or fringe parties such as the Chastity
Party, Family Values Party, Lilith Party and Freedom Party get in thanks to no
votes being wasted under proportional representation. Some of these fringe
parties are one-trick ponies focusing on a single penny-ante issue, such as
raising the drinking age to 25 or banning public displays of affection, and hold
only a single seat in Congress.
It is possible, indeed quite likely, that at least one
new party will come into existence during the 2018 campaign in the “fringe/nutbar”
category above. The new party could even come out of nowhere to win more than
one or two seats.
