Fearful Fudge (was Fudge and the Longbottoms)

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 41008

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "nplyon" <nplyon at y...> wrote:
> Actually, I don't think it's OT to discuss this.  In a nutshell, GW 
> Bush did not win the popular vote in the election, Al Gore did.  
> Doesn't this sound a lot like Fudge versus Dumbledore?  

Errr... no. As a Canadian, I do begin to think that you are perhaps 
letting your national political sensibilities get in the way of 
things. In a parliamentary democracy even, our leaders are not elected 
by popular vote. They are theoretically elected by the parliament, 
though  people will often say they are voting for so-and-so, because 
so-and-so is the leader of such-and-such a party, and if that party 
gets a majority, will be voted in by the Members of Parliament. On the 
other hand, Fudge could even not be elected by a parliament, but 
appointed by the queen, the prime-minister or something mysterious 
else. We just don't know. But I think given his title "Minister for 
Magic," there was not a popular vote involved, but more importantly a 
popular vote was not expected. The Al Gore/George W. Bush question 
rankled some Americans' nerves so much because there was a real 
feeling that a popular vote for the executive was the way to go, but 
you would not, I think, find this in parliamentary countries such as 
Britain. That's just not how it's done. 

>Fudge also 
> seems to be headstrong about the decisions he makes and seems to be 
> openly defiant to what other people think, case in point his refusal 
> to listen to Dumbledore.  I think many members of our international 
> community might see some similarities to Bush here as well.  There 
> are other similarities but I fear the howlers I will receive if I 
> list them.  :)

Actually, canon indicates that Fudge is a very good listener. Not 
listening to Dumbledore is to Fudge the equivalent of any politician 
not listening to a fringe figure with concerns not represented by the 
great majority of the public. Fudge seems to be balancing two special 
interest groups rather well so far: the bleeding hearts (on whose 
wave GoF indicates he rode to office) and the law-and-order types 
(by his support of Azkaban and the dementors).

Eileen