4.12: Article- Procrustean Politics

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by chayka1270 on Pixabay, $\cczero$

Before You Read

Discuss the following questions with a partner or in a group.

What do you know about political parties in the US?
What are the political parties in your country, if your country has them?
How do people decide which party to support or follow?
Do people always support a party 100% of the time?
Should political parties exist?
What does right / left mean in politics? What ideas do they represent in the US? In your country?
If you could make your own political party, what would be some ideas you would want to focus on in your party?
Skim the next reading. What do you think is the author’s purpose of the text: to inform, entertain, or to persuade? How will that affect the way you take notes on the reading?

Building Vocabulary

For this exercise, find the word in the paragraph given. Use the synonyms and definition to help.

P2: cut (v) ______________________________________________________________
P3: injured by cutting (v) ________________________________________________
P3: fingers and toes (n) _________________________________________________
P4: in a clear way (adv) _________________________________________________
P4: cover widely (v) ____________________________________________________
P5: argument between two groups (n) ___________________________________
P5: write (v) ___________________________________________________________
P5: a record of someone’s death, usually in a newspaper (n) _______________
P6: fight (n) ____________________________________________________________
P6: reduce the strength, water down (v) _________________________________
P6: support (v) (two answers) ___________________________________________
P7: single number (n) __________________________________________________
P8: list of people to vote for (n) ________________________________________
P8: less than occasional (adj) ___________________________________________
P8: old, obsolete (adj) __________________________________________________
P9: problem, dilemma (n) _______________________________________________

Vocabulary in Context

There are some interesting phrases in this article. Find or guess the meaning of the words in bold.

Tired from their journeys, many travelers took him up on the seemingly friendly offer.
The tea party had their chance to offer a viable long-term political alternative to voters on the right. But the wheels of that movement have fallen off this year.
In June, John Aziz wrote in The Week that Dave Brat’s win over Eric Cantor in Virginia was not a victory for the tea party; it was a “death rattle.”
…most conservative eyes shifted to Mississippi to see how the main event of the tea party/Republican establishment feud would pan out a couple of weeks ago.
When conservatives in Mississippi, and many other places, cast their votes in November’s general election, they’ll likely feel uncomfortably stretched when backing a Republican
candidate they don’t fully endorse.
…we do need more choices than the sporadic maverick third party presidential candidate.

Go to the following link for the reading: https://noogatoday.6amcity.com/procrustean-beds-and-the-problem-with-a-two-party-political-system/

Then come back to answer the questions below.

Comprehension Questions

Answer the following questions according to the article.

What does the author mention is one of the biggest problems of having a two-party system?
What do we know about the “tea party” from this article?
What happened to the remaining tea party members and supporters?
What does it mean when the author says that Kristen Day “sacrifices her ideological extremities”?
According to the author, who do people in the US usually vote for?

CEFR Level: CEF Level B2