is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government?

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nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
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Originally posted by: sirjonk
Fundamentally wrong compared to what other country? Is it perfect? duh no. would I rather live here than anywhere else? you betcha.

fundamentally wrong in the sense that it needs to be fundamentally Changed, not just a regime change.
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
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I think the biggest problem with the government is that its design was for a totally different era.
Its like a tire that has been patched over and over to keep it running.
 

dmcowen674

No Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
54,889
47
91
www.alienbabeltech.com
Originally posted by: palehorse74
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: loki8481
amidst the calls for change, it's the question I keep coming back to... outside of specific Bush programs and Bush's bad (re: no) leadership / managerial skills, is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government that goes beyond mere policy and politics?

Topic Title: is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government?

Yes, it is no longer "U.S." Government. It is "Corporation" Government.

Have you been watching Jericho again?! :roll:

I've never watched Jericho.
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
174
106
Originally posted by: Modelworks
I think the biggest problem with the government is that its design was for a totally different era.
Its like a tire that has been patched over and over to keep it running.

Well, it was fundamentally re-designed after the civil war.

IMO, time to go back to the original, with a wee bit of tweaking. Quickest way to dis-empower Washington DC.

Fern
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
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Originally posted by: Fern
Originally posted by: Modelworks
I think the biggest problem with the government is that its design was for a totally different era.
Its like a tire that has been patched over and over to keep it running.

Well, it was fundamentally re-designed after the civil war.

IMO, time to go back to the original, with a wee bit of tweaking. Quickest way to dis-empower Washington DC.

Fern

I think the problem is that the world has changed so much since our governments inception and even since the civil war that as time goes on its going to get harder and harder to keep the government functional.

It has happened to every government in history.
 

DonaldC

Senior member
Nov 18, 2001
752
0
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Originally posted by: Craig234
Originally posted by: woodie1
We need to start over. I know, not practical. All the elected officials in Washington plus their staff should be kicked out . All the current salaries and benefits for members of the US Congress should be cut. Their retirement plan should reflect what John Doe receives and they should pay into the SS System. There should be term limits on Congressmen. I've got more but it ain't gonna happen.

The whole system is corrupt IMHO.

Why is it that every call I see for 'starting over' offers nothing useful in the way of how to prevent the same problems?

At least you tried something - but they're things that would make it worse.

Cut the pay for Congress more, and you either get the good people not wanting to lose out on the much better incomes they could get, or more likely, you increase the corruption as they want the added income even more. Term limits on Congressmen deny the nation its best people who serve for long times, and increases the power of the parties to pick new, unknown people constantly whose loyalties are to the party for being chosen, not the people.

Want to improve things? Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money.

Just 'starting over' will break a lot more than it fixes. A lot of people don't seem to realize things could be a lot worse, too.

A famous conservative, Edmund Burke, once said not to tear down a fence until you know why it was put up. A lot of voters today are first negligent at getting informed, and then they fall for lies as a result and get bad things, and then they want to 'start the system over' in frustration, not realizing that they'll just be handing even more power to the wrong people.

So your solution is to "Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money." and everything else will be peachy dandy good.

Where the hell do you live? Not in the USA!

 

Throckmorton

Lifer
Aug 23, 2007
16,829
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The problem is that a president can appoint a lumber lobbyist as head of the Dept of the Interior, an industrial lobbyist as head of the EPA, etc. Republicans are anti-government, and since Reagan they have done all they can to sabotage it while simultaneously blaming it for being ineffective.

The saving grace of the federal government is bureaucracy, which makes it difficult to completely change it based on politics of the day. It has a built in check and balance system, and it has momentum and a large number of dedicated people who just want to serve America, so it's protected somewhat from politicians.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
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Originally posted by: DonaldC


So your solution is to "Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money." and everything else will be peachy dandy good.

Where the hell do you live? Not in the USA!

The benefits to getting rid of that money, which pays for enormous propagandizing of the public opinion, would be broad and enormous, in my view. I live exactly in the USA.

You have to get rid of the corruption of the propaganda from that money before you can even have much useful debate. Look in the mirror and at your post for an example why.
 

Craig234

Lifer
May 1, 2006
38,548
350
126
Originally posted by: BoberFett
Originally posted by: Craig234
Want to improve things? Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money.

Talk about non-solutions. :roll:

Please Craig, enlighten us. How will you prevent lobbying? By boring politicians and corporate executives alike to death with your inane 8 page diatribes of partisan hackery?

People can be bought. You may not like it, but it's a fact. And if government is heavily entwined with business whether through regulation, government contracts, or other forms of corporate welfare, there's a lot of money to be made by buying the people in charge of making government decisions. It's something you simply won't get around. You want big government, fine. Just accept that it comes with big corruption.

Sorry, you choose to be an ass in your post, and the response won't be what you want.
 

bamacre

Lifer
Jul 1, 2004
21,029
2
81
Originally posted by: Craig234
Want to improve things? Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money.

A famous conservative, Edmund Burke, once said not to tear down a fence until you know why it was put up. A lot of voters today are first negligent at getting informed, and then they fall for lies as a result and get bad things


How ironic that you of all people post such words. I doubt your understanding of them is complete.
 

ranmaniac

Golden Member
May 14, 2001
1,940
0
76
Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Originally posted by: loki8481
amidst the calls for change, it's the question I keep coming back to... outside of specific Bush programs and Bush's bad (re: no) leadership / managerial skills, is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government that goes beyond mere policy and politics?

Topic Title: is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government?

Yes, it is no longer "U.S." Government. It is "Corporation" Government.

Indeed, Corporatism, or Italian Fascism under Mussolini is almost as close to what we have, except this is more of a global phenomenon than just what the US is experiencing. Interesting how China embraces big business but still maintains a strict authoritarian government. This is the kind of future that is in store for the US, a police state backed by a corporate-government union. The military-industrial complex has expanded to the hiring of mercenaries like Blackwater and other thugs to do the dirty work, and they share no accountability compared to the regular military.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
Originally posted by: Craig234
Originally posted by: BoberFett
Originally posted by: Craig234
Want to improve things? Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money.

Talk about non-solutions. :roll:

Please Craig, enlighten us. How will you prevent lobbying? By boring politicians and corporate executives alike to death with your inane 8 page diatribes of partisan hackery?

People can be bought. You may not like it, but it's a fact. And if government is heavily entwined with business whether through regulation, government contracts, or other forms of corporate welfare, there's a lot of money to be made by buying the people in charge of making government decisions. It's something you simply won't get around. You want big government, fine. Just accept that it comes with big corruption.

Sorry, you choose to be an ass in your post, and the response won't be what you want.

You're a condescending ass in every post. What's your point?
 

BradAtWork

Senior member
Sep 5, 2005
320
0
0
Not sure if anyone said it, but yes, there is one primary problem with your goverment, and most modern democracys.

Polictical Donations. And lobbying.

Our goverments are so corrupt and 90% of the problem is donations. If Halliburton gives a million bucks to Bush how can you say with a straight face that he isn't going to look after their interest.

You think if a church donates millions to a president he's not going to protect their agenda, even if it goes against his own? THat's the problem with donations, it turns good men it whores. All politions are whores, and hence corrupt.

How much money do you think the HMO's and pharacutical companys give the capitol hill? Billions?

Another problem is the Millitary industrial complex. Its a complete failure of the democratic system. When you mixe public and private enterprise like that you end up with bullshit like no-bid contracts. Great...

In Australia some states are already talking about banning donations, or at least making them anonimous, which would be a start.
 

sprok

Member
Mar 10, 2008
101
0
0
Man, good luck trying to ban lobbying. You'd have to amend the first amendment and take out the part about the right to petition gov't.
 

bamacre

Lifer
Jul 1, 2004
21,029
2
81
Originally posted by: sprok
Man, good luck trying to ban lobbying. You'd have to amend the first amendment and take out the part about the right to petition gov't.

Get the government out of the market, and the market will get out of the government.
 

BradAtWork

Senior member
Sep 5, 2005
320
0
0
Originally posted by: sprok
Man, good luck trying to ban lobbying. You'd have to amend the first amendment and take out the part about the right to petition gov't.

It's not a first amendment issue. That's just the bullshit the lobbiest hide behind.

A private citizen has the right to petition.

It's not in the constitution that businesses can give money to politician to help them get elected.
 

Hlafordlaes

Senior member
May 21, 2006
271
2
81
Originally posted by: loki8481
amidst the calls for change, it's the question I keep coming back to... outside of specific Bush programs and Bush's bad (re: no) leadership / managerial skills, is there something fundamentally wrong with the US government that goes beyond mere policy and politics?

I can associate "fundamentally wrong" with either the issue of governmental design (democracy or other form, federalism, etc. which I won't debate for now) or an issue of governance (legal abuse, corruption, incompetence).

I do not think there is anything wrong with the fundamental design of the US government (although I'd like to see an objective Supreme Court redefine the limits and purpose of executive orders as per the Constitution.) That said, I wonder if any form of government can be "right" or mostly so when combined with such a tremendous concentration of economic and military power.

I do think there are abundant examples of poor governance, and to avoid listing policy or implementation, there is a key weakness outside of government that originated with earlier policy. That is, the progressive deregulation of broadcast and print media has led to the whitewashing that passes for most of that type journalism today. Internet or not, broadcast media are still greatly influential in general elections. A weakened free press means no one is blowing the whistle loud enough, long enough and hard enough.
 

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: Craig234
Want to improve things? Get rid of the absurd and destructive rules allowing for corporations to influence the political system so much with their money.
That's a slippery slope we don't want to go down. No entity should ever be denied the right to participate in government. The problem are the "rules" that make corporations first-class citizens and the rest of us individuals into second-class citizens. Or more properly, the fact that corporations, as juristic persons, are considered citizens at all. That's the problem. Neither you, I, nor anyone else can possibly compete against the collective power of even a small corporation, once granted the same rights of citizenship that an individual has. Because of this power, they don't "influence" the political system, they own it.
 

wirelessenabled

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2001
2,192
44
91
There is nothing wrong with the basis for the US government The Constitution. It has served us brilliantly over more than 200 years.

The problem as I see it is that the various players, The Executive, The Legislative, The Judiciary are not currently fulfilling their roles. Our system of government is based on a 3 legged stool. Each leg must perform its role to work.

Currently the Executive is trying to amass all the power it can in to its hands. No problem, that is what the other two branches are about.

Problem is that the Judiciary is busy being sycophants instead of trying to rein in the Executive and gain more power for itself.

Meanwhile Congress under the Republicans was bowing to King George and the Democratic Congress seems afraid of its own shadow.

If history proves correct, Congress will get off its ass and rein in the Executive, and some more forceful and useful folks will be put on the Supreme Court to stop the Executive's current abuses and all will be back to what the Founders intended, chaos with movement toward the center and protection for the minority.:thumbsup:

Read the David McCullough [sp?] biography of John Adams if you want a clearer understanding.
 

ericlp

Diamond Member
Dec 24, 2000
6,139
236
106
Hmmm, well.......

I think that there should be a basic test you know. No more then 10 minute test tho, you could take up to 20 minutes for the slow people.

But, I think it should be a basic requirement that you know the basic arithmetic and maybe a few really no brainer easy algebra questions. You know solve for X BS.

That would be the first 5 minutes ... then the last 5 minutes would be basic reading and comprehension .... All in English, no translations. I mean, hell... if you can't comprehend basic English, then how the hell are you going to know about how one candidate stands. Anyway, nothing hard just basic BS for the next 5 minutes... No speak / read engrish, no comprenda no votie. That simple!

I feel this test would weed out the goofballs that just want to screw and tilt the vote in favor of one candidate over another....

My two cents worth....

Edit:

I wonder if bush could pass the test to have voted for himself? :p
 

woodie1

Diamond Member
Mar 7, 2000
5,947
0
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Originally posted by: Phokus
There's something wrong with the voting population, that's for sure.

Why? Because we are split evenly over our political beliefs?
I think the problem is the lack of leadership. We couldn't do anything about Bush this last election but we did change the Congressional landscape and what has that accomplished?