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Forums - Politics Discussion - Democracy as we know it has run its course - It is time to modernize our Government

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Mr Khan said:

This is a better thought, though ignores partisan realities (although knowing you, sam, you could be invoking this deliberately ), it would lead to total gridlock, for the next 25 years a permanently democratic house and a permanently Republican senate. 

I was reading a book recently that advocated the elimination of primary elections, actually. Primary voters are non-representative even of the political party as a whole (Republican primary voters more conservative than Republicans, and so on for the Dems). If the decision is left up to party leaders, they pick more marketable (e.g. mainstream) candidates who are less likely to produce gridlock.

Of course, again, if you yourself are outside the political mainstream, you'll see that as a terrible idea.


Well, the idea of the AV voting, forced open-primaries, removing party name from ballot, and dramatic increase in number of seats in the House (and germandering elimination), is designed around the idea of destroying the party system in the House, ultimately having systemic repercussions across all levels of Gov't.

It would slow down the legislative process a lot, yeah. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, no matter what your views are. If you support, say, the Affordable Care Act, you wouldn't want it snapped away in one election, and vice versa. Slow moving legislatures also reduces reactionary legislation, which is often bad and even unworkable, and increases transparency in the legislative process.

As for elimination of primaries, depends on what you want. In the UK, candidates are selected by party donors. Not exactly a recipe for clean Government.



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I would make it like this: if more than 1/3 of the population does not vote, 1/3 of goverments voting power should be direct democracy.



The idea about voting rights is terribly flawed. First it ignores the possiblity of manipulation, second it assumes that intelligent people would vote in a just way. If anything, it would seem that a big portion of intelligent people are using their intelligence for personal gain instead of some greater good.



We need a new Bill of Rights in the US that removes all corporations from affecting voting outcomes. We fought so hard to free ourselves from the monarchy and we forgot to protect ourselves from the oligarchy that capitalism would create.



I agree completely with op.

Any danger of exploitation by the intelligentsia can be easily averted through constitutional protections for the less intelligent, a bill of rights for the intellectually impaired as it were.

A nation will be better governed and more prosperous if those making the decisions do so on the basis of reason and evidence, rather than catering to the superstition, fear, and paranoia of the average voter.

Pride aside, this really is a win for everyone. It makes no difference to me whether I would vote in such a system, as i realize it is in the interest of the nation to have the best and brightest at the helm.



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McGilliguts said:
I agree completely with op.

Any danger of exploitation by the intelligentsia can be easily averted through constitutional protections for the less intelligent, a bill of rights for the intellectually impaired as it were.

A nation will be better governed and more prosperous if those making the decisions do so on the basis of reason and evidence, rather than catering to the superstition, fear, and paranoia of the average voter.

Pride aside, this really is a win for everyone. It makes no difference to me whether I would vote in such a system, as i realize it is in the interest of the nation to have the best and brightest at the helm.

we in western europe have a working system, so why changing it? for the US, money and a bad system of voting is the problem, not voting rights for stupid people.  we have stupid people too, but they dont deny evolution or climate change, they arent even against gay marriage or dope legalisation(they just dont realy care for the last 2 points). and for real, people with down syndro understand that u have to pay taxes if u want good roads and schools.



generic-user-1 said:

we in western europe have a working system, so why changing it? for the US, money and a bad system of voting is the problem, not voting rights for stupid people.  we have stupid people too, but they dont deny evolution or climate change, they arent even against gay marriage or dope legalisation(they just dont realy care for the last 2 points). and for real, people with down syndro understand that u have to pay taxes if u want good roads and schools.


Western Europe has a working system? What part of Western Europe are you talking about? The parts with independence movements that are being ignored? The parts with rising nationalism? The parts with collapsing economies? The part where lobbying French farmers have so much power over an entire continent that they are destroying the agriculture policies in both Europe and Africa for their benefit?

FYI, 35 States recognise same-sex marriage, this is somewhat comparable to Europe when you consider that a lot of countries in Europe have also got bans against gay marriage, or only recognise lesser-unions like civil partnerships.

FYI again, all but a handful of states have decriminalised, legalised, or medically-exempted marijuana, years ahead of Europe.

 

FYI again again:

"A 2006 UK poll on the "origin and development of life" asked participants to choose between three different explanations for the origin of life: 22% chose (Young Earth) creationism, 17% opted for intelligent design, 48% selected evolution theory (with a divine role explicitly excluded) and the rest did not know. However, the poll lacked nuanced survey techniques and equivocated on origin definitions, forcing participants to choose between only these options (which notably excluded theistic evolution). Hence its results are not necessarily an accurate survey of the beliefs of the UK public"



SamuelRSmith said:
generic-user-1 said:

we in western europe have a working system, so why changing it? for the US, money and a bad system of voting is the problem, not voting rights for stupid people.  we have stupid people too, but they dont deny evolution or climate change, they arent even against gay marriage or dope legalisation(they just dont realy care for the last 2 points). and for real, people with down syndro understand that u have to pay taxes if u want good roads and schools.


Western Europe has a working system? What part of Western Europe are you talking about? The parts with independence movements that are being ignored? The parts with rising nationalism? The parts with collapsing economies? The part where lobbying French farmers have so much power over an entire continent that they are destroying the agriculture policies in both Europe and Africa for their benefit?

FYI, 35 States recognise same-sex marriage, this is somewhat comparable to Europe when you consider that a lot of countries in Europe have also got bans against gay marriage, or only recognise lesser-unions like civil partnerships.

FYI again, all but a handful of states have decriminalised, legalised, or medically-exempted marijuana, years ahead of Europe.

 

FYI again again:

"A 2006 UK poll on the "origin and development of life" asked participants to choose between three different explanations for the origin of life: 22% chose (Young Earth) creationism, 17% opted for intelligent design, 48% selected evolution theory (with a divine role explicitly excluded) and the rest did not know. However, the poll lacked nuanced survey techniques and equivocated on origin definitions, forcing participants to choose between only these options (which notably excluded theistic evolution). Hence its results are not necessarily an accurate survey of the beliefs of the UK public"


well the not catholic parts^^. 

 

and its not just lobbying french farmers, all the farmers in europe are revolting because they are idiots, voting and screaming for a more free market but if they get a more free market they want money from the state.  the EU needs to kill those subsidy, they are just helping bad farms to survive. food could be much cheaper if we had a real market.

4 kilo potatoes for 1,50€  and a liter of milk for 60 cent? that could be much lower if they stop the lifesupport for small, bad managed farms.

 

and for the dope, did u ever hear about coffeeshops?

 

but i dont wanna be so mean, if they figure out healthcare and get the crime rate down, CA is a good place to live...




I don't know if you're a college kid just tossing up theories because a politics class got your wheels movin' or what.. but good god...
why don't you just write it all out ad nauseam and title it 'Mein Kamph part II'

The US Constitution, current ideological tamperings aside, was a direct affront and condemnation of the exact type of discriminatory, class based societies your ideas seem to wholeheartedly encourage.

I don't want to call you out completely because at least you're puttin' up some alternatives to our broken system, but you can't subjugate any segment of society by taking away their right to a governmental voice, that's simply a dictatorship under the guise of a larger ruling class.

I agree some fundamental changes should take place, but not the expense of anyone's remaining freedoms.

Only the smarter people.. lol... to be honest, when you stop and consider who's in the seats of power and who voted to put them there, it already is that way. Like another poster already mentioned, the people you would more than likely rob of their right to vote, don't vote as is, whether through apathy, intellectual incompetence, or a problem with the babies momma's ford.



Egann said:

Yeah, NO. Here's my list.

1. REWRITE THE TAX CODE.

Impose a 35% national sales tax, with every American citizen receiving a $10,000 rebate ($830/ month). This means that if you live for less than $7,000 per year, your life is free, if you make up to $30,000 you live tax free, and your tax rate will never hit 35% no matter how much you make.

2. Single Transferable Vote for all elections.

Seriously. Watch the CGP Gray video on Youtube. This alone would fix America's party problems.

3. Laws and classified material expire after 20 years. Laws can be repassed.

If a law worked, it should repass easily in a rubber-stamp. Democracies live on the people knowing things, though, so renewing classification should be reserved for things of great need.

4. All nationally elected officials should be paid based on the average national income. They should get penalized if income inequality becomes too wide or debt exceeds 35% GDP. They should forfeit all benefits should debt hit 100% GDP.

A little debt is healthy. 100% GDP means paying the debt back is almost impossible. I want congress to panic if we get close to that, not play "let's shut the government down for a weekend."

5. Laws need to have a due diligence period before they are passed to investigate unintended consequences. The bigger the bill, the longer the due diligence period.

Obamacare is the big recent offender. Apparently they thought McDonalds would love to pay healthcare for 30 hour/ week employees rather than hire more people. The endangered species act is another good example because it incentivizes killing endangered species to protect your land rights. Research what you are doing, you IDIOTS.

Debt is not the issue, deficits are. Sovereign Debt is effectively sustainable ad infinitum under the right conditions, conditions the US finds itself in. Deficits can cause a crowding out effect to stifle investment, but only in robust economies. Nominally one would reign in deficits to arrest growth of or pay down debt in bull economies, so that they have more leeway to step on the gas in bear economies.



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.