By the way, last night on the news I heard that naturally, Obama prefers the Mac. (Someone in my family is religious about their Mac, or should I say conceited sometimes, which is why I try to avoid being so Mac-dedicated myself. PC's I guess are just “unwashed masses” devices…)

For full disclosure I do not work for Apple nor do I own any Apple stock.

1. Sorry for earlier repeated remarks, but Disqus is causing multiple successive crashes and not displaying earlier posted remarks on the rare occasions when it does display _something_.

2. J. Spence — I've posted several times for ages about proportional representation; it has not suddenly been “discovered” by me here and now to give the GOP (hardly the fringe that the far Left is) a token measure of influence. At issue was what to do about parties (and the Duopoly).

3. Note the example at thread start is a caucus of … Democrats, i.e., a partisan source. A group of big-government fans (just not too much or too harsh big government, no icky stuff) from both parties might be a suitably misnamed “moderate” or “mainstream” (as of 1965) caucus.

2. J. Spencer — I have been on record numerous times in support of proportional representation, advocating it to fringe lefties, but in support of the concept itself, defending it against the contempt shown for it by the establishment Duopoly folks such as the Wall Street Journal (you know their stance on Perot and third-party people, probably, too), referring users to Douglas Amy's Proportional Representation Library site long before we, the people, cast our no-confidence vote in the GOP earlier this month.

3. Note that the caucus example given is composed of partisan members (Democrats). A misleadingly-named caucus consisting of people from both major political parties now that might be used as an example, in favor of big government, just not too big or nastty, would be a “moderate” or “mainstream” caucus. (As of 1965, perhaps…)

I'd like to see the two major parties fractured into 4-6+ parties, additional parties invited to join them, and seats in the House of Representatives and in state legislatures awarded on the basis of proportional representation of election results.

Before writing off the parties, I'd like to see the Duopoly fractured into 4-6+ parties, adding one or more “outsider” parties, and then going to proportional representation in the House of Representatives (in cases of states with five or more seats, or go to regional apportionment and allocation to address the small-state problem) and in state legislatures.