Campaign donations.

[Boss]

Your appeal to ignorance is duly noted.

Sorry, I'll try hard not to appeal to you anymore.

 

[danielpalos]

Your appeal to ignorance is duly noted.

Sorry, I'll try hard not to appeal to you anymore.

It's ok. I don't do ignorance very well.

 

[Andylusion]

Your appeal to ignorance is duly noted.

Sorry, I'll try hard not to appeal to you anymore.

It's ok. I don't do ignorance very well.

Really? You should be a master, given how often you practice it.

 

[Roadrunner]

I'm going to guess you are a corporation hating liberal? You seem fine with the rampant corruption between the Democratic party and the public employee unions who fund their campaigns yet you foam at the mouth about corporate campaign contributions.

No , only citizens should donate. Unions and corporations are not voting citizens.

Sorry, one cannot pick and choose which SCOTUS decisions they accept.

If we really wanted to clean up politics, it could be very easily done.

Ban party reference from all ballots.

Low information bloc party line voter would stay home.

 

[Roadrunner]

I would argue simple, less convoluted laws and government transparency play a more significant role than the size of the government budget. If I were to assign a weight ( intuitively ) to the factors that play into corruption I would put them like this ( 1 = less important , 10 = more important ) :

simple laws: 5
governance (rule of law) : 9
revolving door : 8
budget size : 3
transparency : 3

To advance in our discussion I would ask you to ponder these factors and asign a weight on them ( you may add other factors that you consider important ).

I don't understand the purpose of this exercise we're doing. To limit corruption you simply punish it more vigorously. Nothing else will ever work better. To end the unethical exploitation of federal regulations by corporatists (not corruption), you limit the number of exploitable opportunities and amount of power that can be exploited.

Do like China, use the death penalty for corporate and governmental corruption.

Remember the guys peddling the bad pet food?

Chinese shot those fuckers.

 

[danielpalos]

Your appeal to ignorance is duly noted.

Sorry, I'll try hard not to appeal to you anymore.

It's ok. I don't do ignorance very well.

Really? You should be a master, given how often you practice it.

Not at all; it was FDR' brand of socialism that brought us out of the third world and into the second world so we could then try to use capitalism to purchase our way to the first world.

 

[Boss]

If we really wanted to clean up politics, it could be very easily done.

Ban party reference from all ballots.

This would certainly not end corruption. It's like saying you want to eliminate gang-related crime by banning all gang apparel and bling. Now, what would happen if you tried that? The crime wouldn't go down and only the law-abiding gang member would refrain from getting apparel on the black market like his criminal buds. You didn't do much.

The same thing would happen in politics if you eliminated party reference. The same corrupt influences out there now would simply back their candidates clandestinely and you've just enabled the corrupt to be more invisible.

No, if we want to clean up politics it begins with each of us as individuals making informed voting decisions and only electing people who have character and integrity. Electing people with high ethical standards is a good idea because it helps to ensure trust in the enormous power being given. We should all realize this intuitively, regardless of our politics.

The next step is to crack down hard on corruption. When we catch one of these sons of bitches not following the law, we need to make them an example. This is the best effective way to mitigate corruption. Punish it, and do so harshly and swiftly.

Now if we don't do the first part, or we only half-ass pay attention when it comes to character and integrity, then we'll never see the second step of punishing corruption. Because we're electing the corrupt, they will always protect the corrupt. They aren't going to crack down, they are going to make excuses for why they can't do anything.