|
Post by beags on Jul 14, 2011 17:29:18 GMT -5
discuss any american issue here.
I mean it's not my favorite subject because I feel the people that have been running our country for the past 12 years have been doing nothing but ruining it. (I'm not just talking about our President, I am talking about Congress also)
Let's face it, when it comes to those in charge, the only thing they seem to be able to do is mess it up.
|
|
|
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 5, 2011 14:29:06 GMT -5
There was a time in the country when there were capable people running the government. That was before being a politician became a life-time job. I agree with beags on the need for term limits. If we didn't get a better breed of politician, at least we'd get rid of the bunch we have now.
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 8, 2011 7:49:11 GMT -5
TERM LIMITS - LEARN IT, LIVE IT, LOVE IT!
|
|
|
Post by mojotheawkward on Aug 8, 2011 18:35:06 GMT -5
I'd like to see a fundamental change in the system surrounding our politics. Repealing the seventeenth amendment would be one good place to start, but that has to go along with a recognition that there was a genuine and very serious problem that amendment was designed to tackle.
It failed, magnificently, because that problem arose as the warped sum of self-interest for almost all the players involved. I'm not at all sure what would find a better balance than pitting the tyranny of majorities against that of minorities, which is essentially what our politics does - on the one hand, we have special interests defending their unfair advantages, and on the other, we have populist propaganda misidentifying and misrepresenting those interests. That's not a party-line divide, either: that's the two public faces of policy formation on both sides of the aisle.
Consider: S&P just downgraded US credit because the vaunted compromise on the debt ceiling failed to do enough to curb deficits. In fact, the most sanguine estimates show public debt increasing at a rapid and unsustainable rate even if all the cuts discussed come to pass, including those as yet unidentified by the "Super-Congressional" committee. This is because the cuts are essentially reductions in planned or anticipated increases in current spending, and current spending is a cool trillion-plus dollars more than current revenues.
At the same time as genuine conservatives rightly recoil at the deal on these grounds, they are excoriated by left-wingers who are appalled that no tax increases were included in the package. Over it all, President Obama manages his usual trick of dissatisfying both fringes without appeasing the center by offering nothing of any substance at all but interrupting a lot of prime-time TV to do it. This is not Obama's fault; rather, the fact that a man like Obama has succeeded to the Presidency is a damning symptom of the sickness in our politics, because he is the apotheosis of pandering. His claims to bipartisanship, or even post-partisanship, rest on his willingness to pander to absolutely anybody, without fear or favor, be they rich or poor, friend or foe, wise or foolish. This looks to some of us like unprincipled, short-sighted, and vulgar self-interest: but it is the logical culmination of a system which - at all levels, and from all angles - rewards and promotes such behavior.
|
|
|
Post by susala on Aug 10, 2011 4:29:09 GMT -5
What the heck does all that you have written have to do with repealing the 17th Amendment?
|
|
|
Post by beags on Aug 10, 2011 18:28:03 GMT -5
I don't know, but it all makes sense to me susala.
He's right you know. Perhaps what he meant was that along with the term limits, the 17th amendment also has to go. IDK, but the rest of the post made perfectly good sense to me, and it's true.
I don't care if right or left wing like it. I'm tired of being called names because you said something against Obama, or anything else. This is why I hate politics. Common sense is not allowed, pandering to one or the other party seems to be the only thing that is accepted.
|
|
|
Post by beags on Aug 10, 2011 18:59:41 GMT -5
Actually now that I think about it, it also makes sense with the 17th amendment.
It's all part of the problem, the entire way Congress is run and elected needs to be fixed. It has done nothing but establish a corrupt system. As we can see now, it hasn't worked. Not establishing term limits has resulted in many of our Congress members making a career out of it and becoming corrupt because they are beholden to the rich and special interest groups who funds their campaign. they are no longer working for "We the people". They no longer care about us.
The corruption has hit the point where it can no longer be ignored. People arguing over what party is better are simply in the dark. If they truly want to be honest, they would admit that. Our government simply doesn't care about anything unless there is something large in it for them. It's all about them, it's not about us.
I don't care what needs to be done to fix the problem. But this two party system is corrupt. We the people need to stop turning a blind eye to it. By that I mean they need to stop saying that only the Democrats are corrupt, or only the Republicans are corrupt. When we start admitting that it's ALL corrupt, then we can start fixing the problem. Until then NOTHING will ever get done.
|
|
|
Post by susala on Aug 11, 2011 21:59:21 GMT -5
beags, the 17th Amendment relates to the direct election of US senators by the voters versus by state legislatures. It doesn't have anything to do with term limits. It's a favorite rightwing talking point but no one has ever explained to me how it would make things better or even different.
We have term limits for our state offices and it has made little or no difference. I think what we have to change is the money in politics. We need to publicly finance all campaigns from the bottom up. Elected officials wouldn't be beholden to the big money people then.
|
|
|
Post by susala on Aug 11, 2011 22:03:18 GMT -5
FDR's grandson, Curtis Roosevelt, has published a scathing evaluation of Obama's war time leadership on HuffPo.
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 12, 2011 10:45:27 GMT -5
Good morning all politics aficionados. Interesting topix poll - you can see what people in your area thought of last night's debate (of course this is not a scientific polling): www.topix.com/issue/fox/gop-debate-aug11
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 12, 2011 10:47:03 GMT -5
As far as the Republican debate goes, I was disappointed with Pawlenty. He seemed petty, imho, throwing a silly jab at Romney and squabbling with Bachmann like an old married couple.
Ron Paul impressed me the most. He is to the left of Obama on the wars in the ME!
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 12, 2011 10:47:46 GMT -5
Romney didn't not hurt his cause, but he didn't impress me much either.
I did like his answer on Romney care vs. Obama care.
|
|
|
Post by a on Aug 12, 2011 12:54:09 GMT -5
Repeal the Constitution, every decade, and re-write it...
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 13, 2011 13:16:43 GMT -5
Gosh darn I can't stand Rick Perry . . .
|
|
|
Post by a on Aug 13, 2011 14:08:56 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Coldwarrior on Aug 13, 2011 16:01:48 GMT -5
I did like his answer on Romney care vs. Obama care.
Of course you did. It has been worked on by the best spinners in the insurance lobby for years.
|
|
|
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 13, 2011 16:04:03 GMT -5
He also said that he'd like Texas to secede from the union.
|
|
|
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 13, 2011 16:09:36 GMT -5
We already have term limits in re the presidency, so why not congress? 12 years for the Senate and make the House two 4-year terms. Now they barely have time to do anything but run for office. Let the house election stay every 2 years with one quarter of the members up for election every 2 years, The presidential election remain the same and the Senate too. PUt a monetary cap on how much could be spent on an election and have all publicly financed.
|
|
|
Post by Flying Horse on Aug 13, 2011 16:12:02 GMT -5
BTW--Mojo, I don't understand what you object to about the 17th amendment? If you don't like the public electing senators, how do you want them chosen?
|
|
|
Post by soflamom on Aug 13, 2011 16:37:59 GMT -5
Rick Perry does a whole lot of crazy chit.
|
|