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Senate How to best fix U.S. government?

Discussion in 'Community' started by Ghost, Mar 29, 2014.

?

How can U.S. government best be fixed? (besides constitutional amendments)

  1. disclosure and transparency for political campaign financing

    40.9%
  2. nonpartisan congressional redistricting for the House

    31.8%
  3. further erode the filibuster and similar measures in the Senate

    13.6%
  4. automatic voter registration/updating

    9.1%
  5. mandate that the options of early voting and vote-by-mail be available in every state

    18.2%
  6. eliminate the debt ceiling

    13.6%
  7. make it so government is always continuously funded (shutdowns no longer possible)

    9.1%
  8. Other? (please explain)

    59.1%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Moviefan2k4

    Moviefan2k4 Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 29, 2009
    All good questions, but its important to note that no two conservatives or liberals agree on everything, so many issues would still be decided by tie-breaker.
     
  2. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    1. Agree
    2 and 3. It's called a voter ID card so any more obstacles for a problem that does not exist is just the GOP trying to stop minorites from voting.
    4. I have no idea what this is.
    5. Ok
    6. I guess
    7. There is a separation of chuch and state and folkslike you will have to live with it. Fox news and tea party nonsense is not a legit source.
    8. No.
    9. they are called science books and religious books which say evolution is false are bad.
    10. ...
    11. ...
    12. Oh wtf is this? Obama is not a secret muslim born in Kenya.
    13. "I hate gays"
    14. "Obama is coming to get my guns and I need something to fight stealth bombers with when the 2nd coming happens"
    15. No once cares because the Declaration does nto trump the Constitution.
    16. "We don't need no colored folk or gay folk comin' in this here establishment 'cuz they might pass along their diseases and make us all black and gay."
     
  3. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    wtf

    Mark Levine?

    [face_rofl]
     
    DarthWilliams likes this.
  4. DarthWilliams

    DarthWilliams Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 29, 2008

    But what's the tie-breaker? Having an even number of SCOTUS Justices could never work.
     
  5. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    So instead of having an informal system where justices are appointed for their views on things, we're just going to go ahead and basically outright DEMAND the court be political?

    Yeah, that's exactly the answer to the court being politicized... :rolleyes:
     
  6. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002

    this but unironically
     
  7. Only-One Cannoli

    Only-One Cannoli Ex-Mod star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Aug 20, 2003
    Burn it.
     
    Rogue_Ten likes this.
  8. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    It should be modeled on the Meiji Restoration, and designed to increase the power of Barack Obama.
     
  9. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    A lot of this thread makes me realize what's broken with our government...
     
    Ghost and Rogue_Follower like this.
  10. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    but seriously: smash capitalism. [face_plain]
     
    Adam of Nuchtern likes this.
  11. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Although the history of every single revolution has taught me to be more than a little skeptical of the changes one could affect, I was only half-joking. My intention regardless was to mock the minor procedural changes that won't address anything substantive.
     
    MrZAP and Adam of Nuchtern like this.
  12. Chancellor_Ewok

    Chancellor_Ewok Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2004
    There are admittedly some some interesting ideas here. I just agreed with something I saw on Faux News. I feel dirty. :p

    Anyway, these are my gut reactions.

    1. Congressional Term Limits
    I've already floated the idea of Congressional term limits, so I don't have any issues with this one.

    2. Choose Senators by State Legislators
    I'm not so sure about this one. I have a feeling that this one could be ripe for abuse, although the previous amendment would limit the damage.

    3. Term limits for the Supreme Court and override ability
    The idea of term limits for the Supreme Court is an interesting idea, although again, I have a feeling that the override ability could be abused. Maybe instead of allowing the Supreme Court to be over ridden, the Supreme Court could also act as an advisory body when it comes to determining the legality of proposed legislation?

    4. Limits to Federal spending and taxation
    Again not a bad idea. A no deficit amendment would probably solve a lot of the government's financial problems.

    5. Limits to the Federal Bureaucracy
    How exactly are you going to limit the size of the government and determine who gets what resources?

    6. An amendment to promote free enterprise.
    7. An amendment to protect private property.
    In theory, I have no problems with amendments 6 and 7, but I suspect that in actuality they're really more like free hand outs for big business.

    8. Grant the states the authority to directly amend the Constitution
    The Constitution already contains two different methods for amendment, so I don't really see the point

    9. Grant the states the authority to check Congress
    This strikes me as being a flat out bad idea. I have a feeling that both the Republican and Democratic states will try to check Congress at every opportunity when the opposing party is in power. This could lead to intractable political conflict IMHO and could be highly divisive.

    10. An amendment to protect the vote.
    Again, I see the possibility for abuse. I think it would be more accurate to call this an anti-disenfranchisement amendment, ie the vote is an inherent right of citizenship, and as such can voluntarily surrendered, but can not be forcibly taken.
     
  13. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
  14. Lady_Misty

    Lady_Misty Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 21, 2007
    VadersLaMent =D=

    I once said if I could afford Boba Fett and his friends that I'd ask them to help clean up the Government.
     
    VadersLaMent likes this.
  15. Condition2SQ

    Condition2SQ Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    Wait, The Liberty Amendments is about ten new Amendments? I thought this whole time that it was a monograph on the Bill of Rights.

    Levin's Ameritopia is one of the stupidest "books" I've ever read. It's just a collection of sayings from political paragons like Locke and Tocqueville. Levin himself probably contributes less than a thousand words. It's even worse than Chomsky's pamphlets of table talk.
     
  16. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    What if we create a super intelligent AI and let it tell us what to do and decide everything based on cold logic and mathematics?
     
    MrZAP likes this.
  17. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 3, 2002
    Who gets to create and educate the AI?
     
    MrZAP likes this.
  18. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    An unbiased AI would correctly conclude that humanity is the problem and must be eliminated in order to protect the long-term health of life on the planet. What's just one species, anyway?
     
  19. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    I proposed the term limits to get rid of the career politicians whose only goal is to continue getting elected. If any of you have a better way of achieving this, I'm willing to listen.
     
    Lady_Misty likes this.
  20. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002

    lmao that you actually read anythign by mark levin. have you ever heard his radio show? that shoudl have been enough to clue you in that a paging-thru at the supermarket (my solution) would be more than enough to satisfy your morbid curiousity (the only legitimate reason i can think of for even picking the thing up)
     
  21. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Since when does being a lame duck change a politician's behavior?
     
  22. GenAntilles

    GenAntilles Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jul 24, 2007
    Well since it's just for the US probably a large team of government funded scientists, but the AI would be designed in a way to constantly update and improve so eventually it should remove any biases made in it's creation after it observes the results and tests them. So hopefully within a few hundred years it will be free from human biases and errors in judgment.

    But it only governs the US, not the whole world.
     
  23. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    The U.S., which is one of the only two countries that stores one of the deadliest biological agents in human history, and one that people living today have no resistance to. (I'm having fun with this.)
     
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  24. Condition2SQ

    Condition2SQ Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2012
    My Tea Party-maniac "Obama is a Muslim Marxist who hates white people" dad (who, like most people of that persuasion, could actually tell you next to nothing about Islam and Marxism) gave it to me, promising it would cure of me of my putative Obama-mania. I just read it and chuckled throughout.
     
    Rogue_Ten likes this.
  25. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    The electorate is crazed and depraved which is why the entire work thinks you're insipid jerks.

    Compulsory voting is a wonderful idea, Condition. It forces the populace to actually commit to their end of the social contract (GASP) whilst destroying the capacity of voting blocs to unduly influence power.

    Imagine if the Israeli lobby, Gun lobby, Christard lobby et al could not influence legislation by simply mobilising in a few key districts with otherwise poor voter turnout.

    In any event, good to see how much better you made things when you left the Westminster system and Britain behind.
     
  26. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    That's actually a really stupid thing to say brah. At the end of the day there needs to exist a mechanism for incentivising innovation which frankly, you cannot dream up. I appreciate in the US context it's so royally broken that a fix seems impossible, but that's Americans for you. The fusion of socialism and capitalism, as found Europe, is what you want. Not slogans used by Marxists who are angry that nobody wants to pay them for their philosophy degree.
     
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