Between 0 and 1......by HoonTing

The deadlock of the primary election of DPP, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, for the 2020 Presidential Campaign seems to entangle for an endless loop.  Supporters’ calling for “the winner be the while the loser is the vice,” ignoring the significance of the realpolitik is naïve.  The “Winner-take-all” is, in fact, the style of Chinese culture.  The deadlock was accumulated by serial preventable small things.  It is the responsibility of the ruler.

First, the DPP did not shuffle its cabinet members immediately after the November 24 land sliding defeat.  The cadres of the President are intact.  The defeat happened again on March 16 was more than natural, if the supporters did not sense of the ruler’s self-review.  Second, the principle of “the incumbent first” is natural; however, it should be a written rule, not a unilateral expectation.  The primary election should follow the announcement step by step if two or more competitors finish the registration.  However, if the cabinet members shuffled at the place, the supporters will forgive the “mistake” of the primary election, if the President so asked.

Third, Tsai and Lai met on March 8.  The dialogue on the primary election between the two was just four short questions, similar to that of the Zen Masters.  The ambiguous dialogue brought arguable interpretations only.  The two lost a great chance to reach a meaningful solution to the problem.

The only way is to solve politically, besides following the law, the rule of DPP’s primary election.  The political solution is not that bad, it could create a brand new Taiwan political culture on the contrary.

One political solution is to request Tsai and Lai to promise: 1. to maintain the set rules of the primary election; 2. to accept the result of the poll by the traditional landline households; 3. to be the competitor’s Vice if he/she loses the poll.  If they can get rid of the problem of the face, the supports will vote for them, even the incumbent President becomes the vice of the challenger.  They will win the 2020 Presidential Campaign.

The above solve, established on the precondition of power sharing, is far beyond naïve.  The practice of democracy is not to eliminate competitors.  Instead, it is to search the possibility of “win-win result” by sharing the power with due proportion.

There is the "Unitary Executive Theory" in the U.S. Constitution.  The Vice President is not a natural spare.  The movie “Vice” of 2018, addressed Dick Cheney, the once-defeated power seeker, regained the trust of George Bush, won the campaign, became the Vice President and helped President Bush “substantially.”  The film did not rate Cheney in a positive way; however, it showed the possibility of politics.

There are countless coalition governments around the world, which introduce the Cabinet system.  What we have to do is to treat the groups of Tsai and Lai different "sub-parties," force them to collaborate in the coalition pattern.  There is highly possible to have a winner with fewer votes, say fewer than 30% of the constituency.  How could we trust them to win, if they cannot do this tiny difficulty?  There might be an armed crisis around Taiwan Strait in the near future, how can the winner of the campaign lead us to survive by an establishing the Grand Coalition as the U.K. has done in the past.

Politics is not to search for right or wrong.  It is to transfer the rights and powers of from the old establishments to the new one like Meiji Restoration did in the 19th century.  There is no room for another Natural Number; however, there are countless Real Numbers, Rational and Irrational, could be inserted within the two.