DPP is a centrist party.
I meant “centrist” relative to the KMT and DPP.
That’s where they are wrong because TPP and KMT are pretty much the same thing.
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So . . . what are some concrete policies proposed by the TPP that you feel are “centrist”? Do they even have any proposed policies?
Their big thing, I see it, is to claim they can move outside the Chinese vs Taiwanese nationalist discourse. So what then is their policy to govern?
Guy
Some more bravado from Terry Guo, who reportedly claimed that it’s 99.9999 (you get the picture) per cent certain that he’ll be the KMT candidate for president.
Guy
No party in Taiwan has any policies outside of positions on cross-straits issues and the TPP dont even have that. Right now their main policy is not being the other two parties
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Ko made a big deal of pushing for more social housing while he was mayor of Taipei. If he proposed concrete measures like that, he may gain more support—and possibly also influence future policy (one hopes) even if / when he loses the bid for presidency.
Guy
In the beginning I had hope for them. Ko was positioned as somewhat of an SOP driven technocrat, which is kind of true in a way. But seems like a long time ago when he was actually trying to improve things
Yes and think about it. Even if Ko captures the presidency (say in a tightly contested three-way race), does anyone think that the TPP has the ground game in place to gain control the legislature? I think no one seriously believes this could happen. So at best (and I emphasize that this is still extremely unlikely) he would be president without control over the legislature—a miserable situation, as we saw during the Chen Shui-bian presidency, when little gets done.
Guy
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And I thought you hang out with the Whisbih crowd. 
He won’t. The end goal is to split the DPP vote so the next president will be KMT.
Oldest trick in the book.
He.seems very popular with KMT supporters down South. the Han guo yu types.
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It is unlikely that this is really Ko’s goal.
His goal is to follow the James Soong playbook, try to gain prominence in the media, to help out “his” legislative candidates downticket, who would otherwise get limited media attention, unless they start cosplaying or doing other stunts like that.
Guy
I didn’t say it was Ko’s goal, but I think it probably is the end goal of his KMT buddies who are colluding and encouraging him to run for president.
How long have you been here? The KMT has during the democratic era been terrified of split votes, at least dating back to the Chen mayorship win in the 1990s and then Chen’s presidential win in 2000. What you are proposing is, at the very least, highly counterintuitive.
Guy
Sure, if they think they would lose votes. But not if the DPP would be the ones losing votes. It seems to me that the TPP would attract more DPP voters than KMT. Here’s why:
The main position of the TPP (I think only position, actually) is they don’t want to provoke China but also don’t want to be friendly with China. This position sounds attractive to many DPP voters who are starting to feel like war with China is inevitable.
KMT voters, on the other hand, would see no value in this TPP position. To them, being friends with China is even better than simply not provoking them.
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The proof will show up in January 2024.
Guy
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The old voters are all set in their ways and the only thing that would change is turnout. If the turn out goes back to the norm, the KMT and DPP are about equal.
The only minor party that will have their own candidate is Ke Wenzhe’s TMD (Taiwan Mingzhong Dang). In any case, Ke’s not going to win, but I think it will still take more votes away from DPP than KMT, even though it became glaringly clear that Ke’s incredibly pro-China.
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I agree with the Ke doesn’t want to provoke China statement, however, I don’t think don’t be friendly with China is remotely accurate when describing Ke’s past actions.
In any case, the only way not to provoke China is to do exactly as you are told, so it’s a stupid position to have in the first place.
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