Reforming Congress: Taking It Back To Formula

Science Chic wrote: Thoughts? Is it our system, the parties, the people who are elected to function as our representatives, the inevitable accumulation of corruption and power gathering over 200+ years, or some of all of the above? Do you agree with the proposed fixes in here, or think something else is needed?

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/11/143543101 ... c=fb&cc=fp
Reforming Congress: Taking It Back To Formula
by NPR Staff
December 11, 2011

Dismissing claims that the problems can be blamed on a particular politician or any one set of politicians, Zakaria says the structure of our government, originated by the Founding Fathers, is at the root of the problem and needs to be addressed. "The Founders were obsessed with the problem of absolute power," Zakaria tells NPR's Raz. That fear of concentrated power is what formed our current system of shared, checked and divided power, Zakaria says. But he says that now has resulted in a system that is so onerous that it is very difficult to get anything done and solve the problems America faces.

In contrast to Zakaria, former Republican Rep. Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma argues that it is not the constitutional structure that's the problem with Congress, but the party system. He talks about some of this in his forthcoming book, How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans .

Nope... "resulted in a system that is so onerous that it is very difficult to get anything done and solve the problems America faces" is wrong. The system as it is currently in place has all the outlets needed to enable US to fix the problem. But WE have to fix the problem, not THEM.

I wish everyone would vote issues, not person/party. That's the problem right now. We need to be sending freshman only Representatives and freshman only Senate candidates to Washington. And these freshman candidates need to be going there for one main reason, to throw a monkey wrench into the corrupt Political Class. Issues like term limits, campaign reform (no contributions from lobbyist, PAC, corporations, special interest... individuals only), no politician can EVER work as a lobbyist, a balanced budget amendment... issues like that. They have to promise that they will work together with others elected across the country for these purposes.

It would require American voters to forgo party affiliations, eschew ideological considerations and join together, nationwide, to get the incumbents out of office, fix the problems and return the country to it's citizens. We need to break the political/corporate/special interest/big money hold that currently runs and rapes our country. But the only way this could be done in regards to our constitution and the various checks and balances offered to us is to do it totally nonpartisan.

The only other answer is armed revolution. But that never really works out for the better... does it? Oh, sometimes it feels good for a while, it seems like you've shook the foundations of the plutocrats and kleptocrats, knocked them slightly askew... but that's usually just a temporary illusion. Those with power and almost unlimited money can always sit back, bide their time and come up smelling like roses as soon as the new of the revolution has worn off. The only way for tyrants to survive a revolution is to have enough money and connections to ride it out.

I really don't see any other options. Nonpartisan efforts to oust the Political Class or revolution. Any other nonpartisan suggestions?

The problem is not the system, but those who desire "leadership" roles. It is well known that the scum rises to the top.

Good article SC. I agree it is an inefficient system and corrupted. Maybe self imposed term limits for committee heads and a national vote of confidence for House and Senate party leaders every 4-years.

There is no excuse for not getting the fiscal budgets done every year.

Right now the system is so unwieldy that nothing big gets reformed until a crisis. We have 50 years of band aids.

Arlen wrote: The problem is not the system, but those who desire "leadership" roles. It is well known that the scum rises to the top.

That's why I keep stressing that we need a nonpartisan effort from Americans to vote in politicians that agree to promoting an agenda that WE have crafted. Call it "A Politicians Contract with Americans".... make them sign it and promise to promote it into legislation. And get rid of all incumbents... period. The incumbents can't be trusted... not anymore. We the citizens need to come up with a list of issues. Issues like term limits, campaign reform (no contributions from lobbyist, PAC, corporations, special interest... individuals only), no politician can EVER work as a lobbyist, a balanced budget amendment... issues like that. Issues that are designed to break the marriage of the corrupt Political Class and the crony special interest (big business, the crooked rich, Wall Street).

Issues that are design to throw a monkey wrench into the criminal political machine that has taken the place of a representative government. That should be our Job One right now. And this is not a goal that we can just politely try to accomplish, it has to be a political revolution. Or else, it's going to become a armed revolution, and that never works out for the better. The powerful and rich simply sulk away during revolutions and they have the money to ride out revolutions. And when things settle down, they poke their heads out and we find that they never really lost much, and are again pulling the strings.

But it has to be a nonpartisan effort. Ideologies have to be set aside to accomplish this.

People bitch about how much the goverment spends on pork, but one person's pork is someone else's job. And the biggest spending of the budget is entitlements, just doing what the voters want.

FredHayek wrote: People bitch about how much the goverment spends on pork, but one person's pork is someone else's job. And the biggest spending of the budget is entitlements, just doing what the voters want.

... and just doing what the corporate cronies want, just doing what the special interests want, just doing whatever get them more power and money.

Yes, we can demonstrate. We can march. We can write and sign petitions to our Representatives. We can occupy.

And we should because it's healthy to vent, and we don't feel so all alone. But the truth is, other than the value of venting, we're wasting our time. It is naïve to expect political results from any of these activities.

We need to eliminate all private finance from the electoral process.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-va ... 39463.html

We don't need to change the Constitution, we can change out the idiots we elect every 2 years and it still won't mean a damn thing - they'll be as useless as the next slob, no one's about to give up their favorite parties, but you get the money out of it, make it a true public service, and we start fixing this effing mess. I wish the protestors would focus on that, and make them morons in DC ban campaign finance. Networks can give equal commercial time to each candidate as a public service so it's more fair, and lazy people can stop listening to the misleading propaganda and start checking the candidates records and vote on the issues. Without corrupting money, maybe they might start working for us again, although that's probably even too optimistic.

Wicked wrote: Yes, we can demonstrate. We can march. We can write and sign petitions to our Representatives. We can occupy.

And we should because it's healthy to vent, and we don't feel so all alone. But the truth is, other than the value of venting, we're wasting our time. It is naïve to expect political results from any of these activities.

We need to eliminate all private finance from the electoral process.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-va ... 39463.html

We don't need to change the Constitution, we can change out the idiots we elect every 2 years and it still won't mean a damn thing - they'll be as useless as the next slob, no one's about to give up their favorite parties, but you get the money out of it, make it a true public service, and we start fixing this effing mess. I wish the protestors would focus on that, and make them morons in DC ban campaign finance. Networks can give equal commercial time to each candidate as a public service so it's more fair, and lazy people can stop listening to the misleading propaganda and start checking the candidates records and vote on the issues. Without corrupting money, maybe they might start working for us again, although that's probably even too optimistic.

They've stopped working for us... period. They work for financial interests and power, their financial interest, their power hand in hand with the crony corporatists. And they don't intend to start working for us again.

Fine, a bloody revolution it is to be then, I'm fine with that. Too damn many people on this planet anyway