On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 21:12:58 +0200, David Brown
<
david...@removethis.hesbynett.no> wrote:
>On 25/10/13 15:23, Geoff wrote:
>> On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 09:05:23 +0200, David Brown
>> <
da...@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Wait a minute, you /do/ live in a democracy.
>>
>> No, I don't. It's a representative republic, there's a difference.
>>
>> The Republic of the United States of America was renamed "democracy"
>> during the Roosevelt administration.
>>
>> The problem at the moment is that the idiots who vote are appointing
>> the idiots who desire wealth and power and those idiots are creating
>> 10,000 page laws that they don't read and can't understand before they
>> vote them into law.
>>
>
>I actually know all this - my post was exaggerated. The biggest problem
>with letting (almost) anybody vote about politics is that almost nobody
>is qualified to make good judgements about politics (whether this means
>a representative democracy where voters must pick suitable politicians,
>or a direct democracy where voters make the political decisions themselves).
>
That voters are unqualified to make those decisions, we agree
completely. Exacerbated by the fact that politicians make promises
they have no intention of keeping, just to get those unqualified
votes.
>The general point remains, however - the politics and government in the
>USA is strongly influenced by the voters, and the citizens have a
>responsibility for the government. If enough people feel strongly
>enough, they should be able to make changes.
>
The problem begins when Congress feels they must actually do something
like write bills and pass them. Americans like gridlock. When the
executive and legislative branches are of opposite parties, everything
is fine. If congress runs rampant, the president can veto. It's only
when we elected Obama and had a Democrat-led Senate that we ran into
problems and the ACA was passed. Clinton couldn't get it passed while
Republicans led during his terms and Reid-Pelosi couldn't get it past
Bush's veto.
>I find it ironic that the people (in the western world) who seem to
>complain most about their government, especially the federal government,
>are Americans - yet these are the same people who are most convinced
>that they have the best and most democratic political system.
>
Americans have been complaining about their government since it was
founded, it's part of the culture. Go read "John Adams" by David
McCullough for some insights. Every one of the founders could find
something wrong with the way the others ran their presidencies. About
the only president in history who was universally liked was Washington
and he achieved that by serving his two terms and retiring from public
life.
>In Europe, most people think their governments do a reasonable job most
>of the time. When they think they are doing too badly, they vote in
>someone else at the next election and the politics change (not
>everything, and not overnight, but things do change).
In some ways a parliamentary process is superior to the process we
have in the states. Only a maximum of 1/3 of the house can be turned
out in a single election so for a complete turn-over it takes 6 years.
Senators are even harder to get rid of, they prefer to die in office
or go until the bitter end like Ted Kennedy. The problem is when the
voters seem to think having these fossils in office is a good thing.