Democracy only works in good faith. Nowadays people have found out to game the system. I think US needs to learn from China. They generally follow the will of the people, but they aren't gonna pander to them, but instead they seek the most rational decisions.
Pass a constitutional amendment that corporations aren't people, can't lobby in any way and can't donate, and change the law that money is speech. Put none of the above and first second third choice on the ballot where your second or third vote will count if your first doesn't win.
We are only as fucked as we allow ourselves to be. Considering that we hate ourselves, however, I would say things are about where we want them.
It broke when FDR perverted the commerce clause.
We should be able to vote for none of the above and just let the governor or city council appoint someone. A random person should work better than some of these slugs that run for office. When people like McCain and O'Bammah are running for president, there is no good choice.
All laws and regulations should have an expiration date and need to be voted to be kept as a law. The laws just accumulate over the years and create all kinds of loopholes and obstructions that they were never meant to apply to.
Right now it's hard to change things fundamentally since those that hold the power won't allow it (ie downgrading corporation status).
True, but every law needs to be evaluated at least once a decade. If nothing else it would give Congress something to do besides spending.Requiring every law to be voted on and passed each year would lead to chaos. This is a horrible idea.
True, but every law needs to be evaluated at least once a decade. If nothing else it would give Congress something to do besides spending.
People say revolt.
Do you realize how modern society prevents that? If we revolted the store shelves would go empty. You'd starve or make peace. Only self sufficient people have their god given rights. Would you like another welfare check with that?
If those Lincoln quotes are correct he had a fair bit of Chutzpah in expressing them.
It's not the US that is broken, it's humans. Humans will be humans; human nature is human nature. A democracy is only as good as the participants.
YASMbI. People are clever. What will happen is corporations will just give their executives more salary so they, as "people" can donate and lobby on behalf of the corporation they work for.
When you have so much similarities between the actions taken of all parties elected you have to start questioning whether the ideology isn't just a cover up to get elected.
Truth is, democracy isn't about votes in the US anymore, it's about two parties who suck up all cash from lobbyists who expect to get what they paid for, the ideology portrayed is just made up to differ from the other party.
Having a third party like the "tea party" which is only a remasking of the most extreme right wing neocons won't help either, they are not out to help anyone but those who pay them the most, the companies that own them, not the people.
Real democracy doesn't mean that you get to vote for one of two ideologiests and in the end get the same end result, that's just shared dictatorship.
People say revolt.
Do you realize how modern society prevents that? If we revolted the store shelves would go empty. You'd starve or make peace. Only self sufficient people have their god given rights. Would you like another welfare check with that?
If the US population would revolt it wouldn't last long, what Gadaffi is doing with his bombing of the civilian population would be the third step and it would never come to that.
As a whole, people in the US have too much to lose to revolt.
Sure the ringing bells of freedom is what everyone wants but there are very few who are actually going to take time out of their workday and miss out on a few dollars to do it, not to mention that most people are cowards when it comes to actually doing things and the biggest cowards are the ones who insist they are not.
Everything you said is kind of depressing. Our people are to lazy and scared to stand up for anything.
I do disagree with your first statement as more and more people in this country have nothing to loose we are in for trouble. LA Riots are a good example.
Side Note: I'm not calling for a revolution or anything. I do feel "We the People" need to be loud and pissed off more often.
You do realise you'd need at least ten million people willing to die to take over the white house to even have a valid comparison?
Every time someone speaks out for "we the people" they are just portraying their own opinion as the one of others and it's not unless they have followers enough to say it is, the Tea pickers sure as fuck don't.
Well I would say 10 Million should be considered a sham since the US has abour 290 Million People. Unless you think 4% or so of the population should be able ot decide how things go?
That why I had an issue with us telling Egypt what to do. Every report said 100's of thousands of protestors even if its a million protestors Egypy has a population of 80 Million we helped force someone out because less then 2% of the population was protesting.
ohhh and 30% of Americans Self Identify as being Tea Party supporters.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/141098/tea-party-supporters-overlap-republican-base.aspx
math for you thats 87 million people. I guess they are all hick, gun toting morons?
Granted, but I think that was JTsyo's point in reverse. These laws build up as new laws are passed, but the old laws that may be in conflict are also still in force. Now you have one law that says you must do X, another law that says you must do Y, and maybe a third law that says you cannot do X and Y together. For example, the ADA says that fire alarm visual notification devices must be mounted at 80" to top of strobe light; that's a federal law. The NFPA and IBFC say that strobes must be mounted 80" to 96", whether to the center or to the top isn't referenced. Those are laws adopted at the state and local level. And the ADA addresses strobes only in sleeping areas, which by exclusion means to meet the federal law one cannot use ceiling-mounted strobes except in sleeping rooms. Now, with wall-mounted strobes one cannot legally provide visual notification (required wherever the visually handicapped are accommodated, which is almost all public spaces) for any room larger than 185' by 185' even with 185 candela strobes. Now, I've actually spoken with a couple of people who wrote that portion of the ADA and have been assured that their intent was not to ban ceiling-mounted fire alarm strobes except in sleeping rooms, but that's what they did. And because Congress is always looking at the next big bill, in almost twenty years they have not gotten around to fixing it. Many, many laws are like that, either internally inconsistent, producing bad unintentional consequences, or in conflict with later laws.Right, but laws are a framework, they are build on top of one another. Just as a random example: what if you have a law that requires a government ID in order to say, take out a home loan. Then for whatever reason gridlock or something has the law that permits the creation of government ID's lapse, so no one can get them anymore. What do you do about the other laws that require government ids? It would be a progressive collapse.
I know that idea is really unlikely, but it's just to illustrate a point. I don't think building laws on quicksand is a good idea.
what should happen is voting goes 'online'. Fuck electoral college...it has no place anymore other than to skew the vote for the people already in power.
We trust our most sacred thing online, money. Billions of dollars are moved daily with very little issue.
The biggest fear is 'buying votes', but seriously that is created by those that know this will keep their smoke screen from working. The number of votes to significantly make a difference even at $1 a pop would be staggering.
Put up all the issues, singly...you vote on what your want or don't want. Click submit. Be forced to review what you are voting for with a confirmation on each line and then have to submit a final time.
Politicians fear this system. If the 'popular' vote was heard we'd be living in a different country and IMHO a better one.
Since you are obviously not in touch with reality or the news and for some reason considered my reply hostile and responded to it in that manner i suggest we forget about it.
I see i touched a nerve with bringing up the Tea Pickers as a joke, well, i'm sorry about offending your sensibilities, but the Tea Pickers are a joke.
Every so often you get a party with completely unrealistic ideals that people like, unfortunantly when put into practice, they are just social conservatives of the extreme kind coupled with the neocon agenda that means borrow and spend at any cost.
Lots of nations have tried that, Greece tried that, Italy tried that, Ireland tried that, Iceland tried that, hell even we tried that and it worked out just about the same for all of us, didn't it? The cure to stop a disease isn't to give in to it, it's to take the hardship for as long as needed and come out the other side healthy.