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Rational Nation USA
Birthplace of Independent Conservatism
Liberty -vs- Tyranny
The following article makes many valid arguments. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the article's conclusions it is worth the read. Deserving of rational thought by all.
From the Atlantic:
Angry and frustrated, American voters went to the polls in November 2010 to “take back” their country. Just as they had done in 2008. And 2006. And repeatedly for decades, whether it was Republicans or Democrats from whom they were taking the country back. No matter who was put in charge, things didn’t get better. They won’t this time, either; spending levels may go down, taxes may go up, budgets will change, but American government will go on the way it has, not as a collective enterprise but as a battle between warring tribes.
If we are truly a democracy—if voters get to size up candidates for a public office and choose the one they want—why don’t the elections seem to change anything? Because we elect our leaders, and they then govern, in a system that makes cooperation almost impossible and incivility nearly inevitable, a system in which the campaign season never ends and the struggle for party advantage trumps all other considerations. When Democrat Nancy Pelosi became speaker of the House, the leader of the lawmaking branch of government, she said her priority was to … elect more Democrats. After Republican victories in 2010, the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said his goal was to … prevent the Democratic president’s reelection. With the country at war and the economy in recession, our government leaders’ first thoughts have been of party advantage.
This is not an accident. Ours is a system focused not on collective problem-solving but on a struggle for power between two private organizations. Party activists control access to the ballot through closed party primaries and conventions; partisan leaders design congressional districts. Once elected to Congress, our representatives are divided into warring camps. Partisans decide what bills to take up, what witnesses to hear, what amendments to allow.
Many Americans assume that’s just how democracy works, that this is how it’s always been, that it’s the system the Founders created. But what we have today is a far cry from what the Founders intended. George Washington and James Madison both warned of the dangers posed by political parties. {Continue Reading}
via: Memeorandum
The Dominant Class doesn't care whom you vote for as long as it's one of their two choices...
ReplyDeleteWe live a in corporatocracy. Now, money is speech, corporations are citizens, taking bribes is acceptable political campaigning.
ReplyDeleteWhat we have now is legalized bribery, more in your face and obvious than ever, and no one with serious political power in this nation is even trying to stop it.
We need an amendment to the constitution that defines a citizen, an individual endowed with constitutional rights, as an individual human, and nothing else. Not a group of people, not an abstract contractual arrangement - only an individual human being.
There rights as human beings would remain the same with the group or contractual entity. There's no need to further protect those groups and arrangements.
As well we need to end all corporate donations and campaigning, with campaign donations only allowed by individuals and not groups of them, and a cap on the donation set at ten times to the lowest cash denomation, which would at this time be the dollar. Ten bucks.
I'll tell ya' what - it would at the least give politicians incentive to grow the dollar!!! ;)
JMJ
It's not the election process, it's the fact that the feral government has burst all constitutional bounds and now infests every corner of our lives and touches virtually every activity including reading by lightbulb, having sex and going to the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteWe argue over it so much because it intimately affects every aspect of our lives.
Jersey's tired solution won't fix it, but this will: Roll it back. Take it away. Put the feral government back in the constitutional box. If it's not in the constitution take it away from them.
The federal government should be representing us overseas, defending the country and mediating interstate disputes, and nothing more.
JMJ said: "We live a in corporatocracy."
ReplyDeleteNo, we do not.
"Now, money is speech"
Well, money IS speech in the view of those who back McCain/Feingold. Their goal is censorship of unwanted political views, and they see a way to ban the transfer of money at certain points.
Money always has been a major part of free speech. The New York Times pays people to run the printing presses and deliver papers. Banning people from spending money on political advertisements is like banning newspapers from paying paperboys.
"corporations are citizens"
No, they are not. Citizens United was actually about protecting the rights of individuals to speak out about those in power.
"We need an amendment to the constitution that defines a citizen, an individual endowed with constitutional rights, as an individual human, and nothing else."
Actually, we don't need such an amendment because this is how citizenship is already defined.
"There rights as human beings would remain the same with the group or contractual entity."
This is what the Citizens United decision protects. Against those who want to see individuals censored if they have associations with certain despised groups.
"As well we need to end all corporate donations and campaigning"
Actually, campaigning IS protected. After all, no corporation can campaign. This is all done by individuals.