Most state lawmakers earn low salaries. It impacts who can afford to be one

[Blues Man]

this is a worthy topic, my friends!

Most state lawmakers earn low salaries. It impacts who can afford to be one.

Lawmakers didn’t go into the statehouse to make money. But they also don’t want to be put in a situation where they have to struggle.

19thnews.org

Which is how politic s was meant to work.

The founders never envisioned the career politician but their aim was the citizen politician who took the job as a service to the country for a time only to then return to civilian life.

 

[fncceo]

fncceo OK you want to take the title? Go right ahead. And U can fuck off too.​

 

[Oddball]

this is a worthy topic, my friends!

Most state lawmakers earn low salaries. It impacts who can afford to be one.

Lawmakers didn’t go into the statehouse to make money. But they also don’t want to be put in a situation where they have to struggle.

19thnews.org

Wait staff and bartenders don't make much per hour either....The real money is in the tips.

Of course, the politicians get "tipped" in the six and seven figure column, so there's that.

 

[Dragonlady]

Which is how politic s was meant to work.

The founders never envisioned the career politician but their aim was the citizen politician who took the job as a service to the country for a time only to then return to civilian life.

Yes but the Founders envisioned a country of under three million people stretched out along the East Coast of the New World, with states having vastly differing climates between North and South. The agrarian economy of the nation was the foundation of wealth of its people.

Now you have an ethnically, culturally and racially diverse population of over 330 million people spread across the entire continent and several offshore islands, plus Alaska. 35 states have populations which are greater than the 2.5 million which was the population of the entire country, in 1776. The framework established by the Founders is complete inadequate for the nation you have today.

The Founders allowed for things they couldn't know or foresee by giving you a process by which you can amend the Constitution, and it certainly needs an overhaul, but I don't see now as the time to do this when the nation is teetering on the brink of an authoritarian dictatorship and Republicans are attacking voting rights, women's rights, and the demanding white male rule.

Conservatives on this board look at the Founders' intentions as if they were alive today, and try to interpret what they wanted. Like Freedom of Religion. They opine that since all of the Founders were Christians, they really wanted a Christian nation. No they didn't. The Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock, left Europe because of religious persecution by the Catholic Church during the Reformation.

The Founders didn't want a Christian nation. They'd been watching the meddling of the Catholic Church in the affairs of state in Europe, and no good had come from have the King dictate the state religion, in any jurisdiction. See Henry VIII and the Church of England. The Inquisition in Spain. Added to which Europe had been endlessly at war since the Fall of the Roman Empire.

This is the backdrop to the writing of your Constitution. Your Founders wanted to avoid the religious wars, and class warfare of Europe post Reformation. They wanted a country where everyone had to chance to succeed, and the people could make their own life choices without the constraints of class or wealth. A place where calling the government "unfair" didn't get your head chopped off. And they wanted the people to have a say in government because the Monarchs in Europe had been inbreeding for far too long.

You have all of the "originalists" trying to interpret what the Founders intended, but none of them ever discuss the times the document was written in, and its impact on the things they focused on. Like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Assembly. Amendment No. 1.

 

[Blues Man]

Yes but the Founders envisioned a country of under three million people stretched out along the East Coast of the New World, with states having vastly differing climates between North and South. The agrarian economy of the nation was the foundation of wealth of its people.

Now you have an ethnically, culturally and racially diverse population of over 330 million people spread across the entire continent and several offshore islands, plus Alaska. 35 states have populations which are greater than the 2.5 million which was the population of the entire country, in 1776. The framework established by the Founders is complete inadequate for the nation you have today.

The Founders allowed for things they couldn't know or foresee by giving you a process by which you can amend the Constitution, and it certainly needs an overhaul, but I don't see now as the time to do this when the nation is teetering on the brink of an authoritarian dictatorship and Republicans are attacking voting rights, women's rights, and the demanding white male rule.

Conservatives on this board look at the Founders' intentions as if they were alive today, and try to interpret what they wanted. Like Freedom of Religion. They opine that since all of the Founders were Christians, they really wanted a Christian nation. No they didn't. The Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock, left Europe because of religious persecution by the Catholic Church during the Reformation.

The Founders didn't want a Christian nation. They'd been watching the meddling of the Catholic Church in the affairs of state in Europe, and no good had come from have the King dictate the state religion, in any jurisdiction. See Henry VIII and the Church of England. The Inquisition in Spain. Added to which Europe had been endlessly at war since the Fall of the Roman Empire.

This is the backdrop to the writing of your Constitution. Your Founders wanted to avoid the religious wars, and class warfare of Europe post Reformation. They wanted a country where everyone had to chance to succeed, and the people could make their own life choices without the constraints of class or wealth. A place where calling the government "unfair" didn't get your head chopped off. And they wanted the people to have a say in government because the Monarchs in Europe had been inbreeding for far too long.

You have all of the "originalists" trying to interpret what the Founders intended, but none of them ever discuss the times the document was written in, and its impact on the things they focused on. Like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Assembly. Amendment No. 1.

They also didn't want a political class.

 

[Dragonlady]

They also didn't want a political class.

They didn't want a RULING class. They also didn't want being in government to distract from the business of making money. Big difference.

Time to face the reality that you cannot manage a nation of 330 million people without a political class. The government is to large and complex to manage if you don't know what you're doing, and your nation is suffering because you refuse to acknowledge this simple basic fact. Trump couldn't get anything done in government because he didn't know how it functions.

Republicans are now trying to impose a "ruling class" on the nation - an oligarchy of rich, white men. And those people are ruling to the benefit of rich white men, and fuck the rest of you. The economy must be protected, screw the workers. That's an oligarchy, and that's what they have in Russia.

The gerrymandering in the wake of the 2020 Census shows their intentions in spades. Texas got two new house seats because of the increase in non-white residents in the state. Those new resident are not going to get representation in the House at all. Texans have drawn the map to REDUCE representation for minorities and strengthen the Republican hold on the House seats.

 

[Blues Man]

They didn't want a RULING class. They also didn't want being in government to distract from the business of making money. Big difference.

Time to face the reality that you cannot manage a nation of 330 million people without a political class. The government is to large and complex to manage if you don't know what you're doing, and your nation is suffering because you refuse to acknowledge this simple basic fact. Trump couldn't get anything done in government because he didn't know how it functions.

Republicans are now trying to impose a "ruling class" on the nation - an oligarchy of rich, white men. And those people are ruling to the benefit of rich white men, and fuck the rest of you. The economy must be protected, screw the workers. That's an oligarchy, and that's what they have in Russia.

The gerrymandering in the wake of the 2020 Census shows their intentions in spades. Texas got two new house seats because of the increase in non-white residents in the state. Those new resident are not going to get representation in the House at all. Texans have drawn the map to REDUCE representation for minorities and strengthen the Republican hold on the House seats.

Of course we can.