"Unbreaking America" - proposed concept on fixing our political system!

[little wing]

Yeah, and that US-led WWII victory we all learned about? Well, a lot of Americans, like over 400,000, gave their lives for that victory, and Americans did sacrifice a lot to help achieve the victory. I had relatives who were in action. But the Russians lost an estimated 24 million, and without them the war would have probably been lost, more so than without us. I wonder how the story should really be told, but that's blasphemy.

Complely agree. You're so right about the Russians, they took the brunt of it. If the Nazis didn't have fight on two fronts...who knows. My uncle and my grandfather fought in WWII. My brother and I have always talked about going to Normandy. We are finally going to go in October.

 

[Old Onkyo]

It seems to me that MAGA was specifically intended not to have an explicit meaning, that it was intended to mean different things to different people. In a way it's a code phrase, intended to imply that Trump will reinstate the clarity of purpose, or the homogeneity of culture, or the greater relative power, or whatever, that the US was perceived to have in the 1950s and 1960s. And, IMO, with that clarity comes a simplicity of values and purpose that Americans didn't question 50 or 60 years ago. Communism and atheism were bad, the founding fathers were saint-like good, the US won WWII, US leadership in the world was dominant and unchallenged, the US was a dominant manufacturing power, caucasian Christians ran the country (with a few notable exceptions, who knew their places),and everyone else was a small minority. This is just my opinion, but I do think there are a lot of US citizens who long for the times when some or all of those things were true, and MAGA is code for any or all of this.

Frankly, I grew up in the 1960s, and I like the US of today a lot better than I did the US of 1965.

You are right, it is coded language. That is The nicest explanation of it that I have ever heard.

 

[lovinthehd]

If the voting public had brains we wouldn't need term limits. We would simply vote them out but, no, we just complain and keep on re-electing these losers..

What other country allows non-citizens to vote for their representatives? And, why the fuss over photo ID to vote? Poorer countries manage it. Why can't we?

Also, please note that over half of our representatives are millionaires while only 1% of the general public are. And, what was their worth when they took office? Hmmmm??? Maybe those lobbyists pay better than we do,

OK, Rant over. I said I wouldn't get involved in politics. That's it for me. I 'm outta here.

We allow morons to be president...

 

[Alex2507]

I wonder how the story should really be told, but that's blasphemy.

I can just see Vladimir Putin doing like a story time for a bunch of small children and Donald Trump all seated cross legged, in a circle. "How The West Was Won".

The US now has more millionaires than the total population of Sweden. Let's be more like Sweden.

I'd rather be a millionaire.

 

[TheWarrior]

I'm not living in USA, but I would feel uncomfortable with term limiting of congresspeople as some in this thread suggests as I think that citizens should be able to vote on those they want to represent them.

The video suggests that ending gerrymandering (a.k.a. rigged elections), ranked choice voting and automatic voter registration will help against an entrenched party handing themselves "office for life". I think that could be a good way to go, but there will be alot of resistance to these election reforms.



As I understand it the US public is more to the left than congress on several US divisive issues, like single-payer healthcare (Medicare for all?), abortion rights and stricter gun control.

Gerrymandering is the rezoning of voting districts. They are being purposefully redesigned around low income areas, and those with a higher ethnic population. And when I say around, I mean they are literally drawing lines around specific neighborhoods to dilute our votes. It worked for Bush 2.0, and it worked for Trump - neither one, won the popular vote!

Yes, automatic voter registration, absentee ballots, National Holiday for voting, all of these basic things would help get the vote out.

I do agree that a popular person should be able to be re-elected, too - re: term limits. But being forced to stick with the incumbent due to lack of competition is part of that problem. The costs of running for any office are absolutely absurd, to the point that ALL of our elected officials are spending entirely too much of that OFFICIAL time, preparing for the next election! That is NOT public service!

The other issue that was pointed out is our two party system - more American's than ever are listed as Independent. The power the Committee chair's have may also be responsible for why we are in this mess. Bernie Sanders had people coming out in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS. Instead we got stuck with the two least popular candidates in history.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Make a law saying that private corporations and associations can not donate more than 10k to government officials or political nominees. Ahhhh they be soo pissed. This would level the playing field big time IMO.

I was hesitant to comment in this thread, as I was previously accused of - more or less - meddling in American affairs in a previous thread, although the accusation wasn't quite accurate.

That said, I would like to offer an observation concerning political finance laws. In Canada, corporate, union and association contributions have been banned for several years. Only individuals are permitted to donate to political parties and the limits are pretty low. However, this needs to be policed and kept under close scrutiny. Corporations have had employees make contributions (which they would otherwise probably not have made) and reimbursed said employees.

Another example (from Wikipedia):
"In 2006, Liberal leadership candidate Joe Volpe returned $27,000 in political contributions that had been made in the name of children - after it was revealed that his campaign donors included 11-year-old twin boys and a 14-year-old boy who donated $5,400 each, the allowed maximum. The children and several other donors that had contributed the maximum allowable $5,400 each - for a total of $108,000 - were all in some way connected to the top corporate executives of one pharmaceutical company."

Politics is a dirty business. But, we get what we deserve. When the vast majority of the electorate fails to keep itself informed, many (most?) votes are cast in utter ignorance. Or, if voters are paying attention, it's to their narrow partisan interests. Lefties complain about corporate welfare and right-wingers complain about individual welfare. That's human nature and will never change.

Democracy is messy, corrupt, inefficient and divisive - but it's better than the alternatives, so we all should be wary of authoritarianism creeping into western societies.

 

[highfigh]

Sir, we are having a discussion about fixing our broken political system. We just brought up the issues of imposing term limits and revoking Citizen's United.

You appear to be rambling on like a Trump tweet. Would you like to turn on Caps Lock?

I didn't mean the whole post was sarcastic.

Yes, our system is broken but we need to define what is broken and how it should be fixed. Don't just pass it off with "It should be obvious", either.

It would be interesting to make a list of what needs to be fixed/changed.

 

[highfigh]

I'm not living in USA, but I would feel uncomfortable with term limiting of congresspeople as some in this thread suggests as I think that citizens should be able to vote on those they want to represent them.

The video suggests that ending gerrymandering (a.k.a. rigged elections), ranked choice voting and automatic voter registration will help against an entrenched party handing themselves "office for life". I think that could be a good way to go, but there will be alot of resistance to these election reforms.

As I understand it the US public is more to the left than congress on several US divisive issues, like single-payer healthcare (Medicare for all?), abortion rights and stricter gun control.

When people remain in Congress for long periods, they lose touch with what's happening out here and being in Congress was never supposed to be a career. Also, they have voted to determine their own compensation and to allow lobbying- those, along with term limits are hot button topics with a lot of people.

Which way is "left", in your estimation- Liberal or Conservative?

 

[Steve81]

Gerrymandering is the rezoning of voting districts. They are being purposefully redesigned around low income areas, and those with a higher ethnic population. And when I say around, I mean they are literally drawing lines around specific neighborhoods to dilute our votes. It worked for Bush 2.0, and it worked for Trump - neither one, won the popular vote!

Gerrymandering doesn't come into play in presidential elections, but it's huge for things like congressional elections. If you can pack a large chunk of the opposition party's voters into a single congressional district, yeah they'll win that district by a huge margin, but as a result they may lose five other districts by a couple percentage points.

 

[highfigh]

Yes, automatic voter registration, absentee ballots, National Holiday for voting, all of these basic things would help get the vote out.

I do agree that a popular person should be able to be re-elected, too - re: term limits. But being forced to stick with the incumbent due to lack of competition is part of that problem. The costs of running for any office are absolutely absurd, to the point that ALL of our elected officials are spending entirely too much of that OFFICIAL time, preparing for the next election! That is NOT public service!

The other issue that was pointed out is our two party system - more American's than ever are listed as Independent. The power the Committee chair's have may also be responsible for why we are in this mess. Bernie Sanders had people coming out in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS. Instead we got stuck with the two least popular candidates in history.

Who would be registered if it was automatic? Everyone, everyone who qualifies.....? Who decides who's qualified?

I don't know where you are- you don't have absentee balloting?

How many times should they be re-elected? Until they lose interest, lose the election or until they die?

I totally agree on the cost of elections and running while in office- imagine what could have been done with the Billions spent on the last three POTUS elections.

 

[Irvrobinson]

We allow morons to be president...

And we allow them to buy guns...

 

[Trell]

When people remain in Congress for long periods, they lose touch with what's happening out here and being in Congress was never supposed to be a career. Also, they have voted to determine their own compensation and to allow lobbying- those, along with term limits are hot button topics with a lot of people.

Which way is "left", in your estimation- Liberal or Conservative?

I'd say to the left of the current GOP.

On abortion there are now only two GOP members of the Senate who says they support abortions rights, while none in the House. The Pew Research Center: Public Opinion on Abortion 2018 is an interesting saying that 58% of moderate/liberal Republicans support abortion rights (according to PEW classification).

 

[Irvrobinson]

I'd rather be a millionaire.

Me too. And while the majority of Americans may never be millionaires, in the sense of monetary assets, I think many want the chance to achieve it and hold it. This is why I'm dead set against Elizabeth Warren's wealth tax. It might start out as just for the .001% as she describes, but a little down the road it hits mainstream successful Americans, just like AMT did. That's the scam of "tax the rich". You run out of rich people.

 

[Trell]

Gerrymandering is the rezoning of voting districts. They are being purposefully redesigned around low income areas, and those with a higher ethnic population. And when I say around, I mean they are literally drawing lines around specific neighborhoods to dilute our votes. It worked for Bush 2.0, and it worked for Trump - neither one, won the popular vote! ....

In a lighter tone, have you ever seen the satirical sci-fi/drama TV series BrainDead about alien parasites that infest members of Congress brain to control them? In one episode it was discovered that the aliens was doing some gerrymandering of their own: BrainDead - Notes Toward a Post-Reagan Theory of Party Alliance, Tribalist, and Loyalty: Past as Prologue [S01E06]

 

[TheWarrior]

Gerrymandering doesn't come into play in presidential elections, but it's huge for things like congressional elections. If you can pack a large chunk of the opposition party's voters into a single congressional district, yeah they'll win that district by a huge margin, but as a result they may lose five other districts by a couple percentage points.

Ah, I see that only Maine and Nebraska use congressional districts....

 

[TheWarrior]

Who would be registered if it was automatic? Everyone, everyone who qualifies.....? Who decides who's qualified?

I don't know where you are- you don't have absentee balloting?

How many times should they be re-elected? Until they lose interest, lose the election or until they die?

I totally agree on the cost of elections and running while in office- imagine what could have been done with the Billions spent on the last three POTUS elections.

We have Social Security numbers for all citizens. On your Eighteenth Birthday, you get a little package from your President encouraging you to practice your right to vote in a completely non-partisan way.

GA continually makes voting difficult for everyone - including when they choose to pave the road to a polling station during rush hour. Did you hear about our highways collapsing and buckling? Believe me, there are plenty of other roads that could have been scheduled for that time period!

I think if we overturn Citizen's United and any other legislation that is allowing Billionaires to purchase pieces of the government, we can start to dismantle this system that has taken us away from even being listed as a true democracy.

 

[TheWarrior]

In a lighter tone, have you ever seen the satirical sci-fi/drama TV series BrainDead about alien parasites that infest members of Congress brain to control them? In one episode it was discovered that the aliens was doing some gerrymandering of their own: BrainDead - Notes Toward a Post-Reagan Theory of Party Alliance, Tribalist, and Loyalty: Past as Prologue [S01E06]

Wow, yes I have seen that... actually forgot about it so thanks for the refresh!

 

[Irvrobinson]

I was hesitant to comment in this thread, as I was previously accused of - more or less - meddling in American affairs in a previous thread, although the accusation wasn't quite accurate.

I'd ignore those people. Expressing an opinion isn't meddling. I've got a lot of opinions about other countries too, and expressing my opinions isn't meddling.

 

[davidscott]

2 term limit for anyone in congress just like the president. We have too many lifetime politicians. And abandon the archaic electoral college system.

 

[Trell]

2 term limit for anyone in congress just like the president. We have too many lifetime politicians. And abandon the archaic electoral college system.

A two term limit for a House member would mean that s/he could only be a member for only four years, and along with two years terms you'll be guaranteed a House of, well, something. Experience is not one of those.

If you want to avoid entrenched parties handing themselves power for ever there are other actions that I think is more effective without limiting who citizens vote for with respect to term limits. The first post has a video of how to combat this.

That said, for a US system (executive system etc) it certainly makes sense that you have term limits for certain positions to lessen the danger of autocracy. With Trump as US President that did not work out that well (puh, good thing this is the rant thread )