Ideas For Breaking the Cycle

[CurveLight]

This I can agree with. We are a nation of whiners. Whiners with their hands out saying, "Gimmie".

One overlooked problem is geography. We have outgrown DC many times over and instead of all Fed reps being in that one city they should be zoned out across the country for equitable access to elected officials. I would also restructure the office of the president to be replaced with a body. There is way way galactically gargantuan too much power consolidated into that one person. If everything was spread out more then participation could easily be increased and once dilettantes see their activism can make a difference it would reduce apathy by attrition.

Well, no. I have a complete abhorrence to the dismantling of our Constitution. If anything, we should return to the Consitution as it was intended. That means that Senators are not elected by the people, but by the the state legislatures. That the power of governing the people be returned to the States and that we have a federal government for the sole purpose of defending this nation and to settle disputes between the states. That would in fact, go a long way to decentralizing the power of the President as well as the power of the Congress and put it back into the hands of the people.

I would also like to see our education process include the information that the people cannot vote money to themselves from the treasury.

Removing the people from voting for Senators helps return power to the people? How? We already have States governing themselves which is why MA has same sex marriage while most other States do not. The Federal government has overstepped itself in many ways but there is too much ambiguity here to see where and when the cut off lines should be. I fail to see how it would decentralize the office of the President. Could that be explained more?

 

[slackjawed]

One overlooked problem is geography. We have outgrown DC many times over and instead of all Fed reps being in that one city they should be zoned out across the country for equitable access to elected officials. I would also restructure the office of the president to be replaced with a body. There is way way galactically gargantuan too much power consolidated into that one person. If everything was spread out more then participation could easily be increased and once dilettantes see their activism can make a difference it would reduce apathy by attrition.

Well, no. I have a complete abhorrence to the dismantling of our Constitution. If anything, we should return to the Consitution as it was intended. That means that Senators are not elected by the people, but by the the state legislatures. That the power of governing the people be returned to the States and that we have a federal government for the sole purpose of defending this nation and to settle disputes between the states. That would in fact, go a long way to decentralizing the power of the President as well as the power of the Congress and put it back into the hands of the people.

I would also like to see our education process include the information that the people cannot vote money to themselves from the treasury.

Removing the people from voting for Senators helps return power to the people? How? We already have States governing themselves which is why MA has same sex marriage while most other States do not. The Federal government has overstepped itself in many ways but there is too much ambiguity here to see where and when the cut off lines should be. I fail to see how it would decentralize the office of the President. Could that be explained more?

When Senators were elected by the state assemblies we didn't have unfunded mandates from the federal government to the states. We had very few career senators until the direct election of senators.
The house was created to be 'the people's house' and was expected to be a little looney. The senate was to be elected by the state assemblies to provide a check against the 'tyranny of demcoracy'.
What we have now is two looney houses of congress and no checks on that tyranny of democracy. Unfunded mandates are common because the senators no longer have to worry about answering to their state governments.
That's why we need to repeal the 17th amendment.

 

[slackjawed]

I have an idea.
Once a year we hold a 'congressional rodeo' where representitives and senators compete in the various events.
Those that win first place in each event get to be chairman of something.
The best bull rider in the house gets to be house majority leader. Second place would be minority leader.
The best bronc rider in the senate would be the senate majority leader, ect ect.
Alternate ideas include just making representitives and senators rodeo clowns for the real competitors.