Sort of political Monday

Addendum
I want to move away from the Liberals and other formerly powerful parties that are ostensibly centralizing but really  move-to-the left incrementally parties. Before I do, a final thought. This is nothing terribly profound nor is it anything that thousands of others haven't said before me but it needs to be said to close the discussion.

The Liberal Party of Canada, my primary example here, differs from its two chief rivals in two respects:

1. it elects it leader indirectly, or has elected its leader that way until now as there are discussions to change this, and
2. it has relied for financial support from a small number of large donors giving large amounts rather than a lot of individuals giving relatively small amounts. There are also efforts to change this.

It will be impossible for the party to do these things and maintain its current policies of governing by brokering between the interests of different groups. Anyone who wants to get elected leader under a  more direct process will have to appeal directly to individuals rather than interest groups and any attempts to collect funds from individual donors will have to appeal to the interests of a large number of individuals rather than interest groups. Powerful interests within the party are fully aware of this and are already manœuvering to block or neutralize any proposed changes. If they succeed the party will die and will deserve to do so.

That, of course, is a problem for the people who are actually members of the party to resolve. They will either succeed or fail. They can go away and work on this and then we'll see what they come up with.