In a recent post… we argued that politicians and their supporters are inconsistent, and we might say "politically motivated" and along comes Mr. Galanis, a supporter of the PLP to prove the point.
In a letter to the editor he suggests that Mr. Hubert Minnis (FNM), leader of the Official Opposition was being "purely politically motivated" and being "duplicitous" when his party encouraged people to vote against web shop gambling in the recent opinion poll called a referendum on the issue.
But doesn't this fly in the face of Mr. Galanis' own party when they were purely politically motivated and duplicitous, and only a few short years ago (2006 if I remember correctly) they voted in favor of amending the Constitution on six key items in the House of Assembly, but then decided to oppose them when they got on the campaign trail.
Heck they even opposed equal rights for women back then and now have their own Constitutional Commission that will recommend making women equal. Talk about being politically motivated and duplicitious. Wow. But maybe they'll get it right this time.
This all proves the point that many politicians and lots of their supporters will be inconstant and turn on a dime if they think it suits their political interest to do so.
So maybe Bryan Caplan (pdf) was right, "A Rational Voter" is a "Myth" as Mr. Galanis seems to make evident, which is what leads to so many bad public policies.
I can't say it often enough. The government of the day simply needs to present a Bill to Parliament to legalise gambling. In fact the web shops already have business licenses issued by the government to operate.
As the graphic above shows, to make our country a little better we need a political class that's more concerned with transparency, predicatability, stability, enforceability/accountability, and due process, than scoring points. In other words politicos and supporters that are less politically motivated and more consistent on those policies that impact us all.
Quo Vadis Bahamas?
They all seem to have self Interest above best interest for the country, period !
Dennis.. Go to the head of the class.. You have learned the lessons of failed political governance which are gradually destroying our wonderful country.. National Interest must always be the guiding light when planning and formulating our country’s national policy and future.. Corrupt self-interest and petty political party interest will never take us to the next level of national righteousness that so many of us had hoped for as we enter our forty year of independence.. Our country has only one interest, our National Interest, which must become paramount in our government’s daily thinking..
I think a large part of the problem is Tradewinds,they think,in particular the PLPs that “Dis we tings” is in the best interest of the country & that is so far away from best interest that its outrageous.Right now at this time in our country,we need to reduce taxes for the sake of the country much less the businesses,& these nuts are talking about & seemingly going to implement more tax increases ! Have they completely lost their freekin minds !Even the PLPs that I have spoken to are very upset with their own leadership right now & just think,we have at least four more years of this crap !!! I still blame this fiasco on Ingraham & McCartney for not kissing & making up,this can be laid right at their doorstep because instead of the “Best Interest” of our country those two had self interest ahead of all else. If the PLP really feel that Mitchel is “doing the right thing” then may God help us all.
The big challenge is defining the “National Interest”.
We all expect so many different things from government. Hence another reason to keep government small.
The smaller the better & these clowns keep making it bigger so they have even more power over the people & they can share some green with their cronies & friends.I really believe this Island can be divided into three with no more that two representatives for each area easily.What we have now is way,way to large.The former PM contributed to this very large group as well.All this is doing is causing our countries expenses to get completely out of control.Now they are talking fool about national health on top of that ? They are out of control.National Interest is the survival of our country in these rough times.