Ustwo

Lets take politics on a new tact away from Bush, Kerry, Iraq, and whatever else it is that bothers you.

What is your vision for the future? Not what you want to happen, but what you think will happen. How will the world change politically over the next 50 years?

I’m thinking of mine right now, which has changed a bit from if you asked me four years ago.

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Rdr4evr

What happens 50 years from now depends on who gets re-elected in November. If Bush gets re-elected, I predict WW3 and a very grim future.

hammer4all

I envision a planet with a much warmer climate and at least 1 million fewer species. Not that most politicians even care...

Pacifier

There will be no elections in the USA, your dictator won't allow them

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"It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I also cannot imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. Science has been charged with undermining morality, but the charge is unjust. A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death
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Journeyman

Political renegotiations of the colonizing of Mars. If not renegotiating the dictums against nations claiming planets, at the very least limits being drawn up on the sovereignty of colonies placed, forcing governmental ties to the home nation. More likely to be an internationally cooperative effort, though, so I really have no idea how that's going to play out.

rukkyg

More likely to be a corporate effort. Planetary governments will probably outlaw nation-building on other planets, leaving only companies to colonize.

irateplatypus

i predict i will drive my Starbucks Starlane flying car down Starbucks highway to my local Starbucks polling station to vote on who should should be granted MFB (Most Favored Barista) status... under a mocha colored sky.

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If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

~ Winston Churchill

meepa

Last time we did that, ALL HELL WAS UNLEASHED!!!

Okay sorry, I'll go back to Tilted Gaming.

ARTelevision

In 50 years there will remain no significant opposition to the “liberal” media-induced Democrat Party – it will be called something like “the birth of the cool,” so as to give it an ever new and fresh odor. The other party will have no name and will simply be referred to as “the opposition.” The opposition will be an ancient artifact of the signal-to-noise ratio and will be considered as a natural type of electronic resistance that is harnessed by the meme-generating control programs to keep alive such inspiring memes as “freedom,” “oppression,” and “rebellion.” The liberal Democrats will win every “election” (rave) by 95+% majorities as a result of the cool memes that are delivered via clock-radios, cereal boxes and their contents, the holographic bionically implanted mind-replacements that were once called “television,” “video games,” "the Internet," “music,” and every other medium of human intercourse.

The two dates that will be remembered in loving and honored terms are the decade of the 1960s, when the seminal media-as-reality ideas were first inoculated into an entire generation of citizens and the decade of the 2000s, when that generation reached retirement age and found the then-current generation of youth to be perfectly adapted to actually inhabiting the exact same mindset that was only a gleam in its fathers’ and mothers’media-induced mindsets.

Things will be perfect and everyone (except the token opposition, of course) will be cool.

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analog

Amen.

Plus, even if we're all still alive and not radioactive, there will be no elections in 2054... elections are every 4 years. There will be elections in 2052, and 2056.

By then, assuming no global nuclear holocaust, I do not believe we will have the same system in place as we do now. I believe that we will rely more on ourselves and will have a lot less governmental control. I think over the next few generations, people will begin to open their eyes and realize that "more government" is a VERY BAD idea, and that they should take care of the people, not tell them what to do. That is, after all, SUPPOSED TO BE their job now, but i'll be damned if I EVER see evidence of it in any elected offical I can think of.

Great thread idea, btw.

djtestudo

My only guess would be that another party will rise, either Libertarian, or an offshoot of the Democrats. Probably not too long in the future, depending on who wins this election and the next election.

Other then that, I don't foresee any major political changes. Our government in America has been essentially the same for almost 230 years, and should remain so.

Especially after the DJTestudo administration ending in 2048

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OpieCunningham

In 50 years, there will be no significant opposition to the Bible-induced Republican party - it will be called something like "thy everlasting grace" so as to give it a timeless beauty. The other party will be the Terrorists. The Terrorists will be nutured by a small, but powerful, agency within Thy Everlasting Grace so as to keep alive such inspiring memes as "freedom", "peace", "good", "evil", "right" and "wrong". The religious Republicans will win every election (prayer ceremonies) by 95%+ majorities as a result of the Glory Be To God memes emanating from the Mid West Ultra Super Churces (capacity: 70,000) by virtue of the areas massive breeding rate due to no abortion or birth control.

The two dates that will be revered in loving and sacred terms are the decade of the 1950's, the last period of self-immolation before God and the 2000's when Bush The Glorious led the initial fight against Satan.

Things will be perfect and everyone (except the token Terrorists) will be saved.

SecretMethod70

Thank you. Aside for that last sentence () this is the most logical and realistic post in this entire thread. People have a tendancy of GREATLY exaggerating in their predictions of change in the future, and it's pretty much never like that. Maybe a 3rd party will rise, maybe not, but that will be the most significant change in politics that will happen anytime soon. I don't think WW3 depends on whether or not Bush gets reelected, any more than I think it would have depended on who got reelected back in the Vietnam era. Things will go one way, and then the other, but they'll always be moving back and forth.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

powerclown

The US will be joined by India & China as superpowers.

Scipio

In 50 years, we'll still grapple with the same problems: How to take care of the unproductive elderly, what to do about immigration, how to raise and educate children, how to provide health care and such, what level of taxation is appropriate, and who should pay, how to regulate the private sector, etc.

Of course, we'll have other problems to deal with, such as genetic engineering, pervasive IT and surveillance technology, databases, individualism, continual erosion of all uneduated work, the possible arrival of AI powerd thinking machines, that would be cheaper and better than humans at most tasks, what to do with production when it's no longer profitable to pay humans to do jobs of virtually any kind.

Politically, then, we'll be living in a rather different world. It's all a question of who's going to be represented. Barring major changes to the way we have elections, I think we'll still have two parties, and I suspect that one will embrace a future society based on technology we can't yet envision, and that the other will fight to keep the better elements of the past.

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gcbrowni

50 years is a long way out ...

US politics changes very little: there will be (and has always been ...) two parties screaming at each other, each claiming the other will be the ruin of America. One will want more government control, the other will want less. One party will have a inority leader, the presidential barrier haven been broken quite a bit earlier. When to intervine will be a topic of debate, as well as the amount of allowed genertic alteration allowed of babies.

Hmmm, I pretty much see a utopian future. (I'm not kidding.)

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hannukah harry

unfortunatly, the only i could see this happening is through a revolution. i don't see polititians giving up power and shrinking the govt. the smaller the govt, the less power they have. it won't happen just through elections.

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SecretMethod70

There ya go Scipio, another prediction I can pretty much stand behind. The American political system is designed in such a way that more than 2 parties is unfortunately unlikely, however I do think that one will be replaced in the next 50 years by some new party. Sad thing though, considering the disdain the founding fathers had towards the concept of political parties.

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Le temps détruit tout

"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling

Ustwo

Perhaps a new party will not arise, but the party itself may change. The democrats roots harkens back to Jackson, and bare absolutely no resemblance to Jackson’s vision. The libertarians would be closer to Jackson’s republican party. In the last 30 years the democrats have changed quite a bit, the republicans have been a bit more consistent. Who knows what the parties will stand for in another 50 years.

__________________
Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host

Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.