You get to fix one political problem

[Texashiker]

What is it and why do you choose it?

Abolish the income tax.

What we earn should be ours. The income tax is nothing more than a tax on those who work.

 

[dank69]

No it would not.

Maybe not everything but the GOP would be fucked and would be forced to update their policies to survive. That's why I just said "lying." If nobody could lie, pretty much everything would sort itself out pretty quickly. Ah, to dream. Sadly the best we have are fact checking sites. Even more sad is that some people cry that those sites are biased when they don't tell them what they want to hear. Is it any wonder why all the successful politicians are really just successful liars?

 

[dank69]

Abolish the income tax.

What we earn should be ours. The income tax is nothing more than a tax on those who work.

It's more of a tax on your employer.

 

[moonbogg]

Throw rich republican's in a giant blender. Also, ban violence and clean up society.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Throw rich republican's in a giant blender. Also, ban violence and clean up society.

What about rich dems? You do know there are quite a few of them, don't you?

 

[dank69]

What about rich dems? You do know there are quite a few of them, don't you?

Doesn't matter. He listed three things, so now we have to throw him in the blender.

 

[FerrelGeek]

District gerrymandering.
Everything would change if that one thing were stopped.

I'm fine with eliminating gerrymandering. However, I doubt it would have the revolutionalry effect you're thinking it would. The politicians would still be the lying, cheating, money-grubbing, eliteist pigs they are now.

 

[BoberFett]

Throw rich republican's in a giant blender. Also, ban violence and clean up society.

Isn't violence already banned? Wow Democrats are dumb...

 

[FerrelGeek]

Maybe not everything but the GOP would be fucked and would be forced to update their policies to survive. That's why I just said "lying." If nobody could lie, pretty much everything would sort itself out pretty quickly. Ah, to dream. Sadly the best we have are fact checking sites. Even more sad is that some people cry that those sites are biased when they don't tell them what they want to hear. Is it any wonder why all the successful politicians are really just successful liars?

Dems have gerrymandered too, son. When I moved back to northeast Ohio, the county we lived in (red) was attached by a thin line through a county southeast of us to another county (blue) that had a considerably higher population than ours did. The whole point was to screw over the county we lived in wrt congressional representation. And yes, the dems were running the state at that time.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Cut all foreign financial assistance.

Also, throw the UN out of NYC - since giving every nation a piece of American soil (and local legal amnesty) is financial assistance of sorts.

 

[thraashman]

Hmm, multiple ideas in order of how effective I think they'd be.

Set strict limits on the amount of money allowed in politics. Candidates still have to raise money, but only candidates with any serious chance can raise up to the limit. And outside groups are banned entirely from being involved in elections. Fuck that Citizens United selling our government to the highest bidder that Rafael Cruz wants to do bullshit.

Completely independent, non-partisan groups do all districting. Kill gerrymandering once and for all.

Ban anyone who watches more than 1 hour of cable news per week from voting. No exceptions. Sorry Jon Stewart, you must sacrifice your vote for our satirical entertainment. I think your $30 million a year will console you fine.

Congressional pay becomes an incentive based system. Pay for play so to speak. Your asses have to actually do your damn job to get paid.

No amendments not directly related to the premise of a bill can be added to a bill. Fuck all this slipping in unrelated poison pills onto every bill.

 

[dank69]

Dems have gerrymandered too, son. When I moved back to northeast Ohio, the county we lived in (red) was attached by a thin line through a county southeast of us to another county (blue) that had a considerably higher population than ours did. The whole point was to screw over the county we lived in wrt congressional representation. And yes, the dems were running the state at that time.

Son, GOP received 52% of the votes for House seats but won 57% of the seats. Keep pretending the gerrymandering is equal.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Son, GOP received 52% of the votes for House seats but won 57% of the seats. Keep pretending the gerrymandering is equal.

"Equal" is the only way the Right can justify fudging things to win.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Son, GOP received 52% of the votes for House seats but won 57% of the seats. Keep pretending the gerrymandering is equal.

Never said it was equal. Just saying that both sides do it so there's no room for self-righteous indignation.

I'm all for getting rid of it.

 

[dank69]

Never said it was equal. Just saying that both sides do it so there's no room for self-righteous indignation.

I'm all for getting rid of it.

The point was that the GOP would be fucked, not that Dems are saints.

 

[FerrelGeek]

The point was that the GOP would be fucked, not that Dems are saints.

So be it.

 

[Mursilis]

The politicians would still be the lying, cheating, money-grubbing, eliteist pigs they are now.

And we'd still be the dumb, lazy, easily-misled sheep who vote for them.

 

[cbrunny]

"Equal" is the only way the Right can justify fudging things to win.

I really like that pic. Thanks for posting.

 

[fleshconsumed]

IMO the two biggest problems that we have is that 1) we only have two parties to choose from, and 2) lobbying/private financing. Ideally we should fix both, but if I had to choose between two, I'd fix the former one. We need more than two parties. The two party system works to perpetuate the status quo, both parties use divide and conquer where a person has to decide what issues matter most to him and vote for the lesser evil. The two party system ensures that we can never have accurate representation of the voter block. I do not know what it would take to fix the two party system though. I'm not an expert in political systems and the law, but I'd think two ballot/runoff elections for President and Senate and proportional representation for the state representatives should do it.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

No, I thank you. You clarify for any who can think the scientific fact that the CBD is not amenable to reason, that the conversation would end with you as ignorant as when you arrived.

Yes, I am exactly as ignorant as when I arrived. I hope you are less so.

 

[Moonbeam]

Yes, I am exactly as ignorant as when I arrived. I hope you are less so.

Actually I lied. The scientific research on the CBD INDICATES THAT WHEN A CONSERVATIVE IS CHALLENGED WITH FACTS about his or her altered reality state, he or she actually becomes more convinced that the delusion is real. So you are actually more demented than you were, and have become even more so now reading this. What a pathetic defect to have.

 

[Pipeline 1010]

Actually I lied. The scientific research on the CBD INDICATES THAT WHEN A CONSERVATIVE IS CHALLENGED WITH FACTS about his or her altered reality state, he or she actually becomes more convinced that the delusion is real. So you are actually more demented than you were, and have become even more so now reading this. What a pathetic defect to have.

1) I am not conservative.
2) I was not challenged with any facts. I was told that people in power love me as much as my parents and that the only reason that I fear people who abuse their power is because I wish I were the one abusing my power and shitting on my loyal subjects. Which, as I pointed out already, is horseshit. Not facts. Horseshit.

 

[Moonbeam]

1) I am not conservative.
2) I was not challenged with any facts. I was told that people in power love me as much as my parents and that the only reason that I fear people who abuse their power is because I wish I were the one abusing my power and shitting on my loyal subjects. Which, as I pointed out already, is horseshit. Not facts. Horseshit.

The story you told yourself about what you were told is nuts making all your conclusions from it nuts as well:
===================
P: Thank you for responding. Based on your response, I have been able to correctly ascertain that you are an asshole.
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M: I will try to help you understand better:

Pipeline: Fear of the power of others is one of the most rational, logical, natural emotions that exist.

M: If there is something to fear.

Pipeline: (extreme response edition): Power has proven throughout history to be something to be feared. Over and over and over again. To claim that it is not to be feared is to claim that the evil shit it has attained is not truly evil.

M: What you call here an extreme response, I call a ridiculous one. Nobody said power is not to be feared, only that it is to be feared when it should be feared. In shour, you are giving me a programmed black and white belief you hold with which I disagree, but the arguments for which I made can't break your programming.
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P: When someone has the power to ruin me without consequence, I should rightfully mistrust and even fear them.

M: You lived your whole life in that condition. Your parents had near absolute power over you. And had you run screaming in terror out of the house, you would likely have ended up tragically. In order to survive you need not only the capacity to rationally assess risk, but also the capacity to trust, Unfortunately, your focus on only the paranoia aspect of the trust don't trust equation is in large measure the result of parental failure to be totally trustworthy. They didn't exactly totally trust you either, having the same disease they passed on to you, having caught it from their own parents, blamelessly.

Pipeline: (extreme response edition): Are you saying dear brother loves me as much as my parents? That because my loving parents love me, I should love a "benevolent" all powerful government that can, will, and has fucked people's lives in the literal asshole for their own personal benefit? This has been proven time and time again throughout history. No, big brother's love and compassion toward me may NOT be compared to my parents, you dick.

M: You idiot, no that is not what I was saying. I was saying that you have lived your whole life in a condition where people have had the power to ruin you and you were oblivious to that fact, not terrified out of your wits as you claim you should have been.
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P:: People are not perfect, and people with power are easily corrupted to misuse it for their own gain at the expense of others.

M: As I tried to explain it is people whom we can't trust with power that think this way, because knowing themselves and how dangerous they would be if they had power, but not wanting to feel that truth about themselves, see it in other people.

Pipeline2(extreme response edition): Yes, you tried to explain this, but you failed and missed the entire point. It's the people who desire power over others who should be mistrusted, not those who wish to not be ruled by people with absolute power. Let's take a look at the people who had the most power in history. Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Napolean, Hirohito, Caligula, King George the whatever, Kim Jong All Of Them, and pretty much any other supreme leader in history. What the fuck did they all have in common? They all shitted all over their subjects' lives in order to benefit themselves. A little bit of Genocide? Fuck no, a LOT of genocide! So yeah, sure, people who don't think this should happen are merely jealous that they can't do this to people. Only a fucked up asshole would think this. You think this.

M: Only a fucked up asshole could twist what I said into that. Hehe. You are the one who failed and missed the entire point. You tell me people like Hitler are dangerous, duh, but I told you why. You don't understand the why and so you don't understand the nature of what you fear. Your ignorance of the reasons expose you to danger from yourself. Your fear is irrational. I know what the danger is. You don't know what you feel so your insight into others is hampered. You can't see in them what you can't see in yourself. I tried to explain it, but the denial kicks in because you don't want to know what you feel.
-----------------
P: Let's look at an example from nature. When I (or Mr. friendly rabbit) am out for a jog in the woods and I (or he) spots a mountain lion, we will naturally fear it because it has the power to kill us. It has so much power proportionate to us that it can destroy us without fear of negative consequence. This is not an irrational fear borne of a defect in the brain that has been present since birth. This is a healthy fear borne of thousand of years of survival and evolution of our species.

M: It is a misplaced fear when it sees all things as if they were a lion. Even lions need each other to survive and feel a bond with other lions.

Pipeline: (extreme edition): Dumb response. Not all things are seen as if they were a lion. Only the things that have the same power to destroy as a lion are seen as a lion. As currently practiced, MOST government has this power. Every day there are dozens of examples of this happening in America, the land of the free. But according to you, it is my brain defect that leads me to not like this shit. According to you, I should like this shit. Nope.

M: What you call dumb you don't even comprehend. The whole thrust of what I am saying is that you are incapable of distinguishing what is a lion from what is not, that you are programmed and spit out garbage as if they were facts. You have lions up your ass. You see government abuse and run screaming for the trees. Nobody said that government can't be evil or isn't, only that it doesn't have to be when the people involved aren't governing out of ego needs. All I said is that it is possible to live in such a state, that there are people who have no inner illness that drives them to abuse power.
---------------
P: Furthermore, in my example, Mr. Friendly rabbit doesn't NEED a mountain lion to survive. Mr. Pipeline 2.0 doesn't need a mountain lion to survive, either. People of power are very similar to a mountain lion, and non-government citizens who do not enjoy the power of manipulation, the destruction, and the non-accountability of the government are very similar to the rabbit who doesn't like the power of the mountain lion to eat them and face zero consequences. The rabbit is not a bad person who has trust issues because he wishes he could fuck the lion in the asshole. It simply wants to live and let live, which you seem to feel extremely threatened by.

M: Geez People of power, blah blah blah. I wonder where I've been all my life that I don't understand the dangers of power. What I am telling you is way beyond your current understanding, not way behind you, friend.
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P: To automatically trust that the men who have power will never use it against me for evil is to blindly ignore our entire history, which is full of the exploitation, enslavement, and genocides committed by people of great power against those who have none. Genocides, Moonbeam. Of 10s of millions of people. It has happened since the earliest recorded history, and is still happening now.

M: I am not talking about automatic trust, but automatic distrust. You believe that power corrupts absolutely because you can be corrupted. I believe otherwise. I reject the use of power. I reject the notion that any of my best intentions would lead to good.

Pipeline: (extreme edition): Horseshit. I believe that power corrupts because I have seen it happen throughout history, not because I can be personally corrupted. I haven't shitted on people's lives because I don't want to. I could easily be part of the corrupt system, but have rejected it BECAUSE it is corrupt. I do not hate dishonest and corrupt people because I want to be more dishonest and corrupt than them; I hate them because they are dishonest and corrupt and that is fucking immoral and wrong. This is how it should be. It is known.

M: Horseshit? Really? I said you automatically distrust and you reply with a massive screed of distrust? As I said, you don't know what you feel and who you really are. Trust me. You can't be trusted. You hate what is within you. You have contempt for what you are and that makes you dangerous. If you have no idea of the origin of evil within you, you can't defeat it. Contempt divides the self against the self. I am offering you truth you will likely not find anywhere else. It is nice to say. "I hate them because they are dishonest and corrupt and that is fucking immoral and wrong.", but the hate and the fucking need to go. It is that moral outrage that allows anybody to justify anything. It is at the root of the will to power. The war is with the self. It is not out there.

I also reject the notion that any of your best intentions would lead to good because you think that people should be docile subjects to be shitted upon at a whim of people with the power to do so and get away with it. Which is what you would apparently do with power. My prayers are that you never have any.